Mindgames
by Thanatos34
Summary: Alternate ME3 ending. FemShep/Garrus. Complete. "I believe that was what made her so great: her refusal to accept that there was not a better way."
1. Realization

_~Author's Note~_

_So here's the other fanfic I've been working on, for the same reason as the first one- the normal ME3 endings suck. This one is obviously not yet complete, but I think if Bioware releases Ending DLC, this is the theory they will take._

_Enjoy._

_A group on the bioware forums is making a list of different fan rewrites to the endings. Here's the link to the main post if you want to check it out: http:/social. bioware. com/forum/1/topic/355/index/9796236 Again, without the spaces._

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><p>She was sure she hadn't heard it right.<p>

Shepard stared at the Catalyst, aghast. "This is it? This is all I can do? Merge everyone like Saren wanted, control the Reapers like the Illusive Man wanted, or kill off both the Reapers and the Geth? I just spent the last three years ending the conflict between them and the quarians, and now you want me to just kill them off? They're an entire race of individuals, Legion just sacrificed himself so that they are fully self-aware beings! Killing off their race would be just as bad as killing off all the turians!"

The Catalyst stared at her, it's child-like features serene and calm. She felt like punching it. "You must choose, Shepard." Strike that, she felt like blowing it up.

There was something in its voice. Something familiar. She could hardly think through her injuries. Couldn't concentrate, but she had to think. There had be a way out of this.

"Just call off the Reapers. We'd rather take our chances with the AI overwhelming us. We can work through our differences- look at the geth and the quarians! They are fighting together now! There is nothing that says that you what you claim must come true!"

The Catalyst's expression didn't change. "No. You, and you alone, must choose. If you wish to call us off, then take control."

"I'm not going to disobey the one order Garrus ever gave me, damn you!"

"Then the galaxy will die, and the cycle will remain as it is."

"Screw that." She raised her omnitool threateningly. "Call off the damn Reapers, or I swear to whatever god is in control of this messed up universe that I will hack into your system and destroy you if its the last damn thing I do."

Still no reaction. Now she wanted to punch it just to see if anything could move this damn machine. "That is not possible, not even for you, Shepard."

Something wasn't adding up. Why would the Crucible destroy the Geth as well as the Reapers? They were two completely different types of beings. If it was just destroying all electronics... well. That option would be nearly as bad as letting the Reapers win. It would strand the fleets in space. And if this thing was lying to her, maybe something even worse. After all, why should she take its word for anything? It was responsible for this damn solution in the first place. It would be like finally making your way into enemy headquarters and then just lying down and taking a choice offered to her by their leader.

"You said the mass effect relays will be destroyed regardless of which choice I make." Aratoht flashed before her eyes. She blinked, hard, and it passed.

"Correct, Shepard."

"So... the homeworld that I fought so hard to save for Tali and the Quarians... they will never see it?"

"No. But their children will. They can return to their homesystem without the mass relays, it will simply take them awhile."

Shepard groaned. It didn't understand. How had it failed to factor this into its calculations? Or maybe it had and it was still lying to her. "No, Catalyst, you don't get it. They will never reach Rannoch. The quarians don't have enough supplies on board their ships for such a long journey. And there is no way Earth has enough dextro-based food to supply the entire fleet for as long as that journey would take. Hell, you can say the same thing about the Turians and the Krogans. All of their fleets are doomed never to see their homeworld again."

Still no damn expression on its superior face. "If that is the case, it is an acceptable loss in order to break the cycle."

She was furious. An acceptable loss? "No, it's not. Damn you, and damn your solutions. I'm not going to kill four races to save the rest."

"Then they will all die." It gestured at the stars. "Do you want everyone in the entire galaxy to die because you were unable to make the hard choice and sacrifice some to save the others?"

"Agh!" This thing was infuriating. It was almost smug in its beliefs. And they were beliefs, because the logic it was using was completely insane. Shepard looked up at the stars around her, hoping to catch some glimpse of the battle being waged overhead. A pair of Rachni ships tore into a Reaper, but it shrugged them off and blew them into pieces. She winced, wondering if any of them were going to survive this day. She could clearly see more stars in the sky than she had ever been able to. As a matter of fact, they were exceptionally clear. Almost... too clear.

And finally, it clicked. All the little things, all the little oddities came rushing back. The pistol with unlimited ammo. The Illusive Man forcing her to do something against her control. The inexplicable wound in her side, right where she had shot Anderson, that she knew hadn't been there before.

"Catalyst... why am I able to breathe up here?"

Finally an expression. It looked confused. "The same way anyone is able to breathe on the Citadel."

She considered that. For a moment. But no, she had seen stars from the Citadel before and they had never been this bright. "I don't think so. The stars... I can see them too clearly. There is nothing between me and them."

"You are mistaken, Shepard."

"I don't think so. Why did I find a gun that I never had to reload, right when I would be physically unable to reload it? How did Anderson beat me to that damn beam? Why did it transport him somewhere other than it transported me?"

"You are running out of time, Shepard. Does this have a point?"

"This," she gestured to everything around them, "is not real. It's all inside of my head. You are trying, one last time, to indoctrinate me."

"That is patently absurd. I am trying to get you to make a choice so that at least some of the galaxy might be saved."

Shepard ignored him, almost talking to herself. More oddities. "And where did the Illusive Man come from? Just out of nowhere. Why are the Keepers alive and everything else dead?"

"Your imminent death is causing your mind to wander, Shepard. You must choose."

"Hell, why would Hackett assume I was alive? He should have thought I was dead on the ground next to Hammer team."

The Catalyst's voice definitely had a tone now. It was panicked. That was a good thing, if she was right about all this. "Shepard, you are out of time! You must make your choice!"

Shepard looked up at the boy who had haunted her dreams for the last three months. The boy who had been killed back on earth. The boy who, in her dream three nights ago, before the attack on Cerberus' base, had gone up in flames along with her. She drew her pistol. "Tell me. Catalyst. Why exactly does destroying the Reapers also destroy the Geth?"

"Because it destroys all things synthetic. It would also destroy you. It might even destroy someone you loved. Someone who has some cybernetic implants after being wounded by a gunship."

She grinned. It wasn't a pretty sight. It was less like the grin of a human being, and more like the grin of a shark. "And how exactly would you know that?"

"I know everything about you."

She shook her head. Everything? Why did this AI keep trying to manipulate her? "Because Harbinger told you, right? Play to her weakness. Play to Garrus. I bet it told you to do that."

"I... you are incorrect, Shepard. I merely wish you to be aware of all the consequences of the options."

"So if I were to, say, shoot the pillar over there, you wouldn't try to stop me?"

"That would be unwise, Shepard. Why would you destroy a race that you know is sentient when there are better options out there? That is not like you."

She laughed. "I think you know far too much about me."

She turned to the Catalyst and fired her pistol. The bullet merely went through the interface.

"That will accomplish nothing, Shepard. You are bleeding out. You have only moments to live. You must make your choice."

"I have a theory, Catalyst."

"Shepard... there is no time."

She ignored it. "I think, I'm actually still back on earth. "

"This is ridiculous, Shepard. You are wasting what little time you have left." The panicked tone was back in its voice. It was subtle, but it was definitely there.

She kept going. "You are trying to indoctrinate me here." She was wrong. Harbinger hadn't told this boy those things about her.

"I have already told you, that idea-"

"You couldn't only give me the control and synthesis options. You had to at least give me the option to destroy the Reapers. Otherwise, I would refuse to make a choice. You know me that well. So you try to make it the least attractive option possible. Because you see, none of this adds up. I find a pistol that I can shoot a hundred times without reloading. That's not possible. You say this option will destroy the Geth, but if it attacks the Geth, then it would also wipe out everything electronic. Including you. Including the fleet's systems, leaving them all dead in space."

"Shepard, you cannot possibly-"

"Anderson beats me here. How is that possible? It's not. I brought him here, subconsciously, since Anderson has been..." she took a deep breath, only just now realizing it, "has been a father to me. And the Illusive Man showing up? That guy has hounded me from one end of the galaxy to the other, but how the hell did he get here? It's not possible. Why was the console, the way up here, to you, completely unguarded? I didn't have to fight a single Reaper soldier on the way through the Citadel itself."

"This is foolishness, you cannot believe that-"

"This is all in my mind? But I do, Catalyst. None of it makes sense. And there is only one way I see to break this. I choose to finish the fight. You will not escape. And rest assured, when I wake up- and I will wake up- I will finish this. I will come for you, and I *will* kill you. You cannot hide behind your minions forever... Harbinger." She was certain of it now. The same infuriating calmness when talking about the death of organics was there. And synthetics, for that matter. If she was wrong, she was about to kill all the Geth in the galaxy, a mass genocide that she would never forgive herself for. But she wasn't wrong.

The Catalyst stood there, for a moment.

Shepard opened fire on the pillar with the red light gleaming all around it.

The Catalyst began to shimmer, breaking apart, and then it spoke, this time in the voice of Harbinger. "You will die slowly and painfully, Shepard. Come and face your doom then."

The pillar exploded into a shower of metal and sparks.

The Catalyst vanished.

And with a deep breath, Shepard woke up.


	2. Resolve

_~Author's Note~ Thanks for all your kind words, guys. I would have responded to everyone if you guys would get some accounts. :P_

_Hopefully Bioware hears all this outcry and gives us an ending that our Shepard deserves, regardless if it was planned or not. Until then, I guess we'll plow ahead. :P_

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><p>The first thing Shepard thought when she woke was simply one word. Pain. Incredible pain as if her entire body had been dropped into a fire. The second thing was how incredibly dark everything seemed. And then she realized why.<p>

The beam, the way into the heart of the Citadel, was gone.

A few choice curse words came to mind.

Of course they'd shut it off as soon as they realized their indoctrination attempt failed, why would they leave a backdoor wide open with their enemy so close? But that problem was suddenly forgotten as her mind caught up to the present. She was not the only one who had been struck by Harbinger's laser.

"Garrus! Tali!"

She glanced around, wildly, but it was difficult to see anything in the darkness. Lights still flashed elsewhere, she assumed those were lasers, as the Alliance and their allies kept fighting. But now, that didn't matter. She had to find them. They couldn't be...

She wouldn't even think it. Despite the pain from her injuries, which were severe, she starting searching through the rubble.

But it wasn't Tali or Garrus that she found first.

It was Anderson.

The Admiral was lying partly out of some rubble, his entire body burned and nearly unrecognizable. She nearly turned away, assuming he was dead, until she noticed his eyes were tracking her.

She limped over to him. She would have been smiling, but one look at his injuries told her rational side that there was nothing that could be done here.

He spoke, obviously through great pain. "Shepard. I'm done for. You've got to get out of here, you have to tell Hackett the plan has failed."

She could hardly see, either because of the tears streaming down her face or because the darkness seemed to be getting worse. Ignoring him, she began to try to move the rubble away. Her emotional side refused to give up on him.

He coughed, and it sounded like the last gasps of a dying man. Shepard refused to think she could lose him, here, just after she had realized what he meant to her.

With what was obviously a supreme effort of will, Anderson raised his hand and placed it on her shoulder. She stopped her efforts, for a moment, and looked into his eyes. They were shining. "I'm... so proud of you, child. So proud. I know... I know that you will finish this."

She blinked away her tears. She had to be strong. "Together, sir. We will finish this together."

He smiled, a sad smile. "You never would give up on anyone, Shepard. Tell Kahlee... well. Tell her I'll be looking out for her, okay? From wherever we end up."

Shepard closed her eyes, trying to control herself. When she opened them again, Anderson's head was resting on his chest, a smile on his face.

With a sigh, she stood up. She remembered telling Ashley that they could grieve for Kaidan after the mission was done, but not before. Anderson would not want her to fall apart, not now. She had a job to do.

She looked up, at the fight raging in the heavens above her. "It's time to end this."

Forgot searching through the rubble for hours. She no longer cared. If the enemy heard, let them come. She'd kill them all with her bare hands if she had to. She raised her voice, a shout that echoed around the battlefield.

"Garrus! Get your big turian ass out here. Tali, you too. And if I hear anything about a damn suit rupture I'm going to-"

"Keelah, Shepard, keep your voice down! I just saw a few of those little bosh'tets heading past this same area, you're going to get us killed!"

Shepard looked around, unable to pinpoint where the quarian's voice was coming from. "Tali?"

"No, it's the other quarian you brought with you on your squad. Of course its me!"

"Where are you?"

A three-fingered hand came out from under the Mako that was sitting in the middle of the carnage. "Hurry, Shepard, the bosh'tet is coming around again."

Shepard dropped, and wormed her away underneath the vehicle. "Good to see you made it Tali."

"Yeah. Not all of me, though."

"Not.. all of you?"

For answer, Tali turned, just a bit, but it was enough for Shepard to clearly see that her right arm ended at the elbow. Her sharp intake of breath was involuntary. "Oh, god, Tali. Your suit! Are you..."

"I don't know Shepard. I cut off that area from the rest of my suit as soon as I woke up, but... I don't know. If it weren't for the geth interfacing in my suit, I'd be dead already. They managed to activate the suit so that it shut that area down, not as cleanly as I could have- and did, as soon as I woke up- but enough to keep the infection out. I think."

"Wait.. you... have a geth in your suit?"

"Yeah, right before we made the jump to Sol, I decided I might need the extra help. It's been... supportive." She paused, seeming to be listening to something. "Except when it's trying to make jokes out of situations like this. Keelah, I swear EDI was never this bad."

Shepard paused for a moment. "Did you.. did you see if...-"

Tali's voice was soft. "He's beside me, Shepard. I dragged him underneath as best I could."

Shepard took a deep, steadying breath. She didn't know if she could do this without Garrus. "Is... is he-" she choked up, unable to get the words out.

"I'm not sure, Shepard. He's breathing. I think. But... he's bad. Really bad, Shepard. Keelah. None of this is going like we planned it. It just seems like everything-"

Tali was abruptly cut off as something grabbed her by her leg and jerked her out from underneath the Mako.

"SHEPARD!"

"TALI!" No, no, no. She wasn't going to lose Tali, not now.

Shepard rolled out as fast as she could. It was a lone Marauder, and it had tossed Tali to the ground. Its pistol was raised, pointed down at the quarian on the ground below it. Shepard had no weapon, and no time to think of a better plan. She was an engineer, but her omnitool had been completely fried by Harbinger's blast, so there was nothing left for it. She charged the Marauder, who looked up as it heard her, and shifted the pistol to her. But she was too fast for it, and she hit it at full speed, knocking the thing to the ground.

She had some vague idea of snapping its neck with her bare hands, like she'd seen in the vids sometimes, and grabbed it by the throat to try to twist. The vids made it look a lot easier than it actually was.

The Marauder simply stood up with her clinging it to, desperately trying to snap its neck. With one hand, it grabbed her and slammed her into the rubble. She couldn't seem to catch her breath. She knew it was standing over her, knew it was about to shoot her, but she just couldn't breathe. She gasped, trying to fight through the pain. All the hurt from her earlier injuries came screaming back.

She vaguely heard Tali yell something, frantic. A name she used to know.

The Marauder pointed the pistol at her.

And with a distinctive crack, its head snapped back, blue turian blood flowing from the new hole in its head. It crumpled to the ground, dropping the pistol on the way down.

The voice that she heard next was music to her ears. "I said a one-turian kind of woman. Not a two-turian kind of woman. Although that... thing hardly counts as a turian."

Shepard managed to shakily bring herself to her feet, grabbing the marauder's pistol as she went up. She turned and saw him. Garrus Vakarian, leaning against the Mako, smirking at her. Of all the cheek. In this situation, outgunned, alone, and surrounded by the enemy, he was making wisecracks. He may have lost his visor, and most of his armor, and burns were clearly plastered over his skin and on his arms.

But to Shepard, there wasn't a more beautiful sight in the world than her turian on his feet.

She stumbled over her words. "Garrus... I thought..- "

"I told you once before Shepard. It's gonna take more than Reapers to stop this cross-species-"

She flung herself at him, causing him to drop the rifle.

He held her, just for a moment. Then he grabbed her shoulders and pushed her away enough so that he could look her in the eyes. "I am not leaving you, Shepard. That's a promise."

She looked up at him; Garrus Vakarian, her Archangel, and the only thing in this universe holding her steady. Her eyes flashed with sudden fire. "You ready to give the Reapers every kind of hell we can throw at them?"

He looked over at the Marauder, the twisted example of what his species would become under Reaper indoctrination, and his eyes set. "Let's finish this."


	3. Reload

_~Author's Note~ Welp. I think that's all she wrote, guys. According to an app released by SpikeTV's "manager" (not sure what you call the person in charge of a TV channel) called Final Hours of ME3, it seems pretty clear that the Indoctrination Theory isn't what Bioware intended. Apparently, they actually thought that p.o.s. ending we got would make most of the fans happy, since it left the ending wide open. _

_I'm not sure what's wide open about dooming the entire galaxy to the dark ages, or letting the quarians, turians, and krogans be "extincted" as my 12-year-old friend put it, and I don't know why they would do that and then turn around and tell us they would not leave it wide open, they would not pull a Lost on their fanbase, and they *would* give us answers... but apparently, that's exactly what they did. I am completely floored that the fanbase can come up with a better ending in one week than Bioware could over two years. Yeah us? Anyway, this fic will remain head-canon for me, even though I like Anomaly as well, Mindgames actually fits with the ending we have, (better than the one they gave us, lol). _

_Just to clarify something that will become semi-apparent in this chapter. I had to retcon the origin of Banshees. In Mass Effect 3, it is said they only come from Ardat-Yakshi or Asari with predisposition to becoming Ardat-Yakshi, (whatever the heck that means). However, there are supposed to be, according to Samara in Mass Effect 2, only 3 Ardat-Yakshi in existence. So... in this fic, any Asari that is in the Matriarch stage is capable of being turned into a Banshee. The other asari, the younger ones, are not quite as strong, and the Reapers turn them into Wraiths. Basically, they're a weaker version of the Banshee, without the ability to teleport- and with no scream, but with long range biotic attacks. I felt it necessary to explain this, since Shepard would of course have already fought them, and so to have her explain it just seemed forced. _

_And on that incredibly long note- Enjoy._

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><p>"First things first here. We need to find a working radio, let Alliance command know we're still here but that the beam is shut off. Then we need to get Tali to a medical unit." Katelyn looked around at her little troop.<p>

"Shepard, I-"

"That is not up for debate, Tali'Zorah vas _Normandy._" Shepard stressed the last part, just so Tali would know she was pulling rank on her.

"Shepard, I am not going to sit out the rest of this war merely because the Reapers took my arm."

Oh yes she was, if Shepard had anything to say about it. She could do plenty on board a ship without coming ground-side. "How exactly are you planning to fire a shotgun with one hand, Tali?" It was a little cruel, but she needed to end the debate now.

Tali glanced down at her hand. "I... oh. I... I guess I see your point."

Shepard laid a hand on the quarian's shoulder and squeezed. She had perhaps gotten a little too sharp with her. She always forgot how young Tali was. "You'd be surprised what they can do with-" Shepard cut off, gaping at Tali's right elbow. "Tali, what the FUCK is that?" There was something *growing* on the quarian's arm.

Tali looked down and saw what Shepard had. The rubble she had fallen in when the Marauder dropped her to the ground after dragging her out from the Mako had formed around the end of her elbow and was... building something. "Keelah! What... what is going on! What did they do to me! I don't-" She stopped abruptly, as if someone had said something to her. "Oh. Oh my."

Shepard stood there, still gaping as the rubble formed into a crude... well, arm. Complete with the three fingers that quarians had at the end of it. A green shimmer seemed to flow out from the edge of Tali's suit, right where her arm ended, and coalesced into what seemed to be a glowing shield around the rubble, holding it together. All right. *Now* she had seen everything.

Tali looked up at Shepard. "It's the geth. They... he... said that he believes he can handle the 'extermination of non-compliant life-forms.'" Tali brought her new hand up in front of her face and turned it over, inspecting it. A small, sad laugh escaped her. "My people spent 300 years trying to destroy their race. Yet they hold no grudge, no distrust of us. Keelah, Shepard, it's like they've completely forgiven us for... everything." The quarian's tone was the saddest Shepard had ever heard, except when she found her father's body. "Imagine what kind of race the quarians would have been if we had worked with the Geth, if we had helped them along in their quest to become sentient beings, instead of panicking and trying to wipe out their entire race? It's already told me that it has completely purged the infection from my system! I'm not even going to get sick at all, after half my arm was cut off!" She shook her head. "We were so... foolish. So stupid. We took the greatest scientific advance we had ever made- our children- and we tried to... we tried to murder them."

Shepard squeezed her shoulder again, unsure what to say to help her friend.

Tali's voice hardened and her new hand clenched into a fist. "But now, fighting together, we will destroy the Reapers. Come on, Shepard. I need to get back to Rannoch in time to claim some beach-front property before it's all bought out."

She started picking her way through the rubble, heading back the way they came, towards the ground HQ the Alliance had set up.

Garrus and Shepard looked at each other. Garrus rolled his eyes, but there was a smile on his face. Shepard just shook her head.

"You heard Ms. Vas Normandy, Garrus."

"Oh good idea, Shepard. Let's follow the crazy quarian who's listening to voices in her head!"

"I heard that!"

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><p>They made it far closer to Alliance HQ without opposition than Shepard would have laid odds on. But they were still only about halfway back when Tali's shotgun announced at least something had found them.<p>

Tali shuddered. "Cannibal. Or at least, what was left of it. You know, I have no love lost for the Batarians, but that is just a horrible fate."

She looked up. A dozen pairs of eyes were riveted on her not ten yards away. "Oh, ancestors."

If it weren't for Garrus, she would have died before Shepard ever made it to her side. The turian was already bringing his sniper rifle to bear as soon as he heard the shotgun blast, and no less than three times he dropped a cannibal right as it was about to reach her. Without their omni-tools, she and Shepard were down to only two weapons- the pistol Shepard had picked up off of the Marauder, and Tali's shotgun. It was way too close for Shepard. The last shot in her pistol only staggered the last Cannibal. It straightened up for a moment, and then had its head blown in by Tali.

"I'm down to five shots, Shepard." Tali said shakily, looking around to make certain that was all of them.

"Better than me. I'm out. Why are none of these abominations courteous enough to at least leave a lady another weapon?"

"What bosh'tet decided that it would be better to make guns use ammunition instead of heat-sinks? I prefer the old days. Maybe I couldn't fire six shotgun blasts into something in two seconds, but I could keep up the fight a hell of a lot- Keelah!"

Shepard had been fidgeting with her omnitool, trying to get some semblance of functionality to return to it. She glanced up at Tali's exclamation. "Garrus! Banshee!"

The twisted semblance of what had once been an asari matriarch shrieked, and a cadre of half a dozen wraiths came swarming over the hill behind it.

Garrus' voice was slightly panicked, Shepard could tell. Tali probably wouldn't know the difference, but Shepard had never heard Garrus sound like this before.

"Um.. Shepard, I only have four shots. Not even I can take out seven enemies with four shots!"

"Focus on the banshee! Tali and I will deal with her escort!" She called back.

Tali looked at her, her voice incredulous. "We will?"

They ducked down as one of the wraiths opened up with its biotics. Shepard had no intention of getting caught in the open with those things.

Garrus' first shot slammed squarely into the banshee's head, or rather it would have if the biotic field it had thrown up didn't absorb the entire thing. It jerked its head up from where it had been looking at Shepard and Tali, tracking where the shot came from.

Shepard felt completely helpless. There was nothing she could do, she was out of ammo, her omni-tool was fried. She doubting throwing rocks at the banshee would do anything but piss it off. If it noticed them. Tali's shotgun blast dropped a wraith that ventured a little too close to their hole in the ground.

"Bosh'tet. Any ideas Shepard?"

"Don't rush me here."

"Oh by all means take your time. Maybe you'd like" - a second shotgun blast- "to hurry it up just a little, though."

Garrus' second shot penetrated the banshee's barrier, knocking off a chip off of the thing's face. It shrieked again, disrupting Shepard's concentration.

"What was that?"

Shepard looked over at Tali. "I didn't say anything."

Tali threw Shepard her shotgun. "Give me your omni-tool. I have an idea. And that idea requires me being in one piece, so keep them off me, would ya?"

Shepard's face lit up. "Garrus never would let me near one of these things. Something about being afraid I would enjoy it too much." She passed the omni-tool over to Tali, and popped up over the edge of their hole to see where the wraiths were. "HOLY SHI-" One of them was not two feet from their hole. As soon as it saw Shepard it clenched its fist, powering up a biotic attack. Shepard didn't give it time to finish whatever the hell it was trying to do. The shotgun blast knocked her backwards across the hole, but it blew a crater in the chest of the wraith, as well as knocking it back a good ten yards, where what was left of the thing turned to ash. "I LOVE THIS THING!" Shepard was grinning ear-to-ear.

She was sure Tali was rolling her eyes under her mask. "Just remember you only have two shots left, Shepard. Make them count."

Garrus's third shot was the first to make a significant impression on the banshee. A bad impression, if its third shriek was anything to go by. It still didn't drop though. Not only that, but it warped across the battlefield, obviously having figured out where Garrus was sniping from.

Not that it did it much good. Only her Garrus could make that shot- hitting the banshee mid-warp, directly in the head. The rest of the body carried forward and slammed into the wall behind Garrus, but the head was blown off by the turian's last bullet.

Shepard smiled for a split-second, but quickly turned her attention back to the three remaining wraiths. They were circling around, keeping behind cover. Not that she had any intention of using one of her two remaining shots while they were far enough away she wouldn't be absolutely certain it would kill them.

Garrus was out of ammo, if she had counted correctly. Four shots from a Black Widow to take down a banshee sounded about right, in any case.

"Got that fixed yet, Tali?"

The drone that appeared on the hill, directly behind the wraiths, was her answer. A volley of rockets shot out from the machine, taking them completely by surprise. Two dropped immediately, and the third had only just turned to examine the new threat when a blast of fire twisted down from the sky and slammed into its face.

Shepard turned to regard the quarian next to her.

Tali looked at her, and though she couldn't actually see the quarian's face, her voice let Shepard know she was grinning.

"Well. That was fun."


	4. Remorse

_~Author's Note~ Thank you all for the reviews, it's kinda like the drug of choice for us fanfic writers. :P Keep 'em coming, I am trying to respond to everyone who reviews. _

_Dan, I'd send this to you personally if you had an account. You said that Samara never says her three daughters are the only three Ardat-Yakshi in existence. This is incorrect. Shepard asks her: "How many children do you have?" And her response is: "Three. And three ardat-yakshi are in existence today. It is as it sounds." If you don't believe me, go to the following link and skip to 3:25, (obviously you need to remove spaces first). www. youtube. com/watch?v=iE6NcEQuc7U_

_Just another example of lore inconsistency in Mass Effect 3 compared to the rest of the series._

_Thanks for the review, though, and I hope you continue to enjoy the story!_

_I found this on the bioware forums, and thought you guys might appreciate it._

__www. youtube. com/watch?v=7zagpVInvjA__

_It's a fan's alternate ending of ME3 and it is ridiculously good. This is pretty much what I was expecting would be the standard ending- I thought Shepard would only live if basically you did pretty much everything right._

_S/he has another video that uses MaleShep/Liara, this one uses MaleShep/Tali. S/he's currently making the other videos with the other LIs for both FemShep and MaleShep, so keep an eye on his/her channel. Again, you'll need to remove the spaces. If we could somehow splice this into the game after Anderson and Shep's conversation, it would be a great, albeit bittersweet, ending._

_Enjoy the chapter!_

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><p>Maybe there was a god after all. Shepard had been doubting that the last few weeks, hell, the last few years. But either someone up there was watching out for them for once, or she was just insanely lucky.<p>

Either way, she wasn't going to complain that they had managed to get back to Alliance HQ without running into any more of the enemy's troops. A good thing, too, considering Garrus was out of ammo entirely, and Tali had only two shots left. It would pretty much be her and her omni-tool against whatever the Reapers threw at them. And who knows how long Tali's rushed repair job would hold up.

Garrus sucked in a breath as they crossed into the structure that held Alliance headquarters. Or, more accurately, used to hold Alliance headquarters.

The Reaper's ground forces had obviously struck here, and struck hard. Bodies were piled everywhere, though she didn't see any spikes around. Maybe they were too busy clearing out the other pockets of resistance to bother with creating more troops, but she was sure that would change shortly.

She looked around at the ruined interior, considering. The place seemed sound enough, the structural integrity didn't appear to be in any danger of letting the building fall down on their heads. It didn't look like any heavy weapons had been deployed, except right at the entrance itself, where a missile had obviously been fired. The charred remains on the floor underneath made it probable that its target had been a banshee. At least whoever fired it took that thing out. She had seen entirely too many of the twisted Asari matriarchs to ever let her sleep easy again.

Garrus stepped up beside her. "Orders, Commander?"

She shook her head, clearing her thoughts. They needed her to be focused. "We'll stay here for a bit. It's as good a place as any. Spread out. Tali, see if you can find a working radio. Or one that you can make work again. Garrus, search the place for any weapons and ammo you can find. And medpacks. I know you said the Geth helped fix your arm, Tali, but I'd feel better if we got you some medi-gel to put on the wound."

The two acknowledged her orders. Tali began searching over the equipment, and Garrus began looking over the soldiers.

Shepard strode to the forward area of the building, where a group of computers sat, unblinking, silent, dead. She worked over them for a short while before giving up in disgust. Maybe Tali could coax something out of these machines, but her own technical expertise could not.

She turned to regard the entry-way. It was obvious the Alliance had put up a fight, from the multitude of enemy corpses massed in the entrance. It was also obvious it hadn't been enough. She looked closer, thinking she had seen something move. There, again, almost like something was still alive and breathing in that mess. Shepard peered closer, and had begun to walk towards the entryway when she saw it.

An all-too-familiar set of pink and white armor was almost buried under the pile of husks and cannibals.

"Ash!"

She ran over to her LC, dragging the corpses of their enemies off of her. Ashley gasped as Shepard pulled the last one over to the side.

"Thanks, ma'am, it was getting," Ash coughed for a moment, and it was obvious she was badly injured, "getting hard to breathe."

"Garrus! I need you over here! Bring some medi-gel!" Shepard yelled, hoping Garrus was somewhere within hearing range. "Just... stay still Ash. We'll get you patched up in-" Shepard sucked in her breath as she saw the arm of a banshee protruding completely through Ashley's chest.

Ash smiled. "No need to lie to me, Skipper. Just... tell me something. Did you finish this? Did you get them?"

Garrus and Tali came running up, the former with a medkit already opened, but he stopped when he saw Ashley. He had seen too many wounds to think this one could be treated with medi-gel. Tali covered her face with her hands for a moment, then looked up again, trying to keep her composure.

Shepard blinked away her tears. She was not going to cry, damn it. She had seen friends die before. "We got 'em, LC. Bastards paid for what they did." She would make sure of it.

Garrus blinked, confused, but he wisely kept his mouth shut.

"Good. I knew we would. Humans aren't capable of letting someone wipe us out." Her eyes focused on Garrus for a brief moment. "You take care of her, you big dinosaur. You hear me?"

Garrus nodded, solemnly. "I give you my oath."

Ashley nodded back, her features relieved. "It... it was an honor to serve with you, Vakarian. I may not have ever said that... but it was. And... Tali... best damn engineer in the whole galaxy."

Tali's voice shook as she replied. "Shepard is a great-"

Ashley forced herself up, just a bit, pointing a shaking hand at the quarian. "Shepard's got nothing on you, ya hear me? Quit... quit selling yourself short. You get yourself back to your homeworld and build that house, hear me? You make it the best damn house on Rannoch. For me."

Tali could only nod in response.

But it was enough for Ashley, apparently, as she laid back, satisfied. "Skipper. I- I'm sorry for ever doubting you for one second, I- I should have-"

"Stop it, Ash. You were here with me, when it counted." Shepard couldn't stop the tears now.

Ashley nodded, her eyes closing. Shepard could barely hear her whisper. "_Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against... against the dying of the light..."_ Ashley's head lolled gently to one side, and her eyes closed.

Tali gently laid Ashley's broken assault rifle on her chest. "Keelah se'lai, Ashley Williams vas Normandy."

"Keelah se'lai." Shepard took a deep breath and stood up, wiping away the tears. "You can let yourself grieve when the job is done, Shepard. Pull it together," she muttered to herself.

"Tali..." Shepard's voice cracked and she paused a moment, closing her eyes to keep the tears from flowing. "Tali, there's a group of computers over there. See if you can't get one of them up and running so we can get a message to Alliance command."

"Will do, Shepard." The quarian's voice wasn't completely steady, but it was better than Shepard felt.

She vaguely heard Tali began working on the machines. She just had to keep it together for a bit longer. Tali could contact the Alliance and they could get the hell out of here.

She opened her eyes to see Garrus regarding her steadily. "She died a hero, Shepard."

Why was that supposed to comfort her? "I know Garrus. Too many people have died as heroes today. No more. And don't get any ideas yourself."

"So long as you promise not to go out in a blaze of glory."

She chuckled, though the sound was anything but cheerful.

"Shepard?"

"Yeah, Garrus?"

"This may be inappropriate. But... well I need to know. Why did you tell the Lieutenant Comm- Ashley, that we had finished this?"

Shepard took a deep shuddering breath, collecting her emotions. Then she looked at Garrus with such intensity in her gaze that he felt a shiver go up his spine.

"Because we have, Garrus. The Reapers are finished. They just don't know it yet."


	5. Retreat

_~Author's Note~ This one took a bit longer than the others to put together, trying to decide which way to take it, and having discussions with other people about Bioware's response to the RetakeME3 movement sidetracked me for a bit. But now we're back on schedule._

_One other thing, in case you're wondering. I did not get the Day-1 DLC, so Javik is not in this game. I kinda think the idea of a Prothean surviving all that time is incredibly cliché, but regardless, it would be hard for me to write a character that I never spent any time with. And point number two: EDI remained on the Normandy during the final assault. She wanted to come groundside, but Shepard insisted she devote her full attention to keeping the Normandy flying._

_Enjoy._

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><p>It took Tali all of five minutes to coax life out of the dormant machines. Shepard smiled at Tali's expression of pleasure. Ash was right. Shepard was one of the best engineers in the human fleet, but she didn't have half of Tali's technical skills. In combat, they may be roughly the same, but elsewhere Tali had her beat by a parsec.<p>

Admiral Hackett's voice came in clearly through the comm. "-repeat, full retreat. Fall back through the Sol Relay, take as many civilians off the planet as you can. We have to get the Crucible out of here before it gets taken down, it's our only shot. Protect it at all costs!"

Shepard looked up, alarmed at the idea of being left here on Earth, but more alarmed at the fact that Hackett was already falling back. The fleet must have sustained heavy losses for him to be giving up on the plan.

She moved up behind the quarian. "Tali, can you patch me through to the Admiral?"

"I can't get you a private channel, but I can make sure he hears you. And anyone else on that frequency."

"Do it. Let's hope the Reapers haven't hacked our communications yet."

The quarian's fingers rapidly moved over the holographic keyboard. A few strokes and- "Done. You have an open channel."

She cleared her throat. "Hackett, this is Shepard. I'm groundside, the beam to the Citadel has been cut off-"

The admiral interrupted her with an exclamation of surprise. "Shepard? You're alive? Who else is down there with you?"

"As far I know, just Garrus and Tali, sir. What's going on?"

"We're pulling out. The Crucible is taking damage, the fleet is down to 70% strength, and we've only destroyed a dozen or so Reapers. We sent down some transport ships to try to evacuate the civilian population, but I doubt that most of them will make it past the Reapers. Still, it's your best shot at getting out of there, Commander." He paused for a minute, and Shepard heard someone talking to him in the background. "Sorry, Commander. It's the best I can do. We don't have the forces to punch through the Reapers and then have enough left to get back out. Not without heavy losses."

"I understand, sir. What about the Normandy?"

Hackett remained silent for a moment.

"Sir? What about my ship?"

"We lost contact with the Normandy a half-hour ago, Shepard. I'm sorry. Joker was insistent you had survived Hammer squad's destruction, and broke off from the fleet- against orders, I might add- to head down and look for you."

"And then what? He cut off comm channels to prevent you from ordering him back?"

"He did mention something about interference and something else about his signal being jammed." Shepard grinned. That was Joker. Hackett continued, "But then… Shepard, a trio of Dreadnaught-class Reapers cut him off from earth. There's no way he got through."

Yes there was. It was Joker. "He got through. He's the best damn pilot in the galaxy, Admiral. Get out of here, don't worry about me."

Hackett sighed. "This was our best shot, Shepard. I wouldn't be falling back if there was any way-"

"I know, sir. Just keep that thing intact. It's still our best shot at taking them down." She hoped. There was always the possibility the whole thing had been one giant trap.

"Good luck, Commander. Hackett out." Static replaced his voice.

A moment later, Tali said, quietly. "The fleet has left the Sol system, Shepard. Only stragglers remain, and some transport cruisers on the planet itself. None are in our immediate area. Keelah. This is it, isn't it?"

Shepard looked up, and then at her two comrades. "Joker got through," she said, as much to reassure herself as to reassure them. "We just need to let him know where we are."

Garrus looked worried at that. "Commander, letting him know where we are will also let every Reaper force in the vicinity know where we are."

"Then we'll just have to hold this position until he gets here. We're kinda out of options, Garrus."

A new voice cut into their conversation. "If the four of us can't hold this position, then we don't deserve to survive anyway."

Shepard's head jerked up, a wide smile crossing her face. "Vega!" The smile faltered a bit when she saw the wounds that pretty much covered his body. She resorted to sarcasm to cover her concern. "You're not as pretty as you used to be. How am I supposed to fight the Reapers without something nice to look at?"

Vega grinned. "I could say the same about you, Lola. I think I might fight better without you distracting me, though."

A low growl from Garrus cut into their playful banter, and James looked nervously over at the turian. "Woah, pendejo, I get it. Just a bit of jest between old amigos, eh?"

Garrus just gave the marine a turian glare. Vega cleared his throat and looked around at what was left of Alliance Headquarters. "So it's just us four, then?"

Shepard swallowed the lump in her throat at the thought of the rest of her friends in the assault. Were they all dead?

Garrus, who was watching her closely, spoke up. "When the Alliance fell back, they would have issued orders to leave. They could have gotten out of here alive, Shepard. I'm sure they did."

She nodded, grateful, even if she didn't quite believe him. "Sure. Of course. They're probably already waiting back at the rendezvous point."

Vega arched an eyebrow. "We have a fallback point?"

Shepard looked at him incredulously. "What, did you think Command was stupid? Of course we have a fallback point. Plan for the worst, hope for the best."

She took a deep breath. "All right, you three. We're gonna need to hold this position until Joker arrives with the Normandy. Garrus, I trust you've made a clean sweep of this place and gotten us all the ammo there is?" When the turian replied in the affirmative, she continued. "Good. Let's move all of our supplies and medical equipment over here, behind the pillar. Hopefully, it should give it enough cover from any stray shots. Vega, you and Tali take the west entrance. Conserve your ammunition. Don't take shots that won't drop an enemy."

She paused for a moment. "You didn't happen to find a working omni-tool while sweeping the building, did you Garrus?"

The turian smiled, though probably only Shepard realized that. "As a matter of fact, I found three."

Shepard's grin this time was genuine. "Good. Tali, see if you can't get one working omni-tool out of those three." The quarian immediately set to work, stripping the parts off of two of the omni-tools and adding them to the one that seemed the least damaged. If Tali could pull this off, their chances of survival went up drastically. Tali was as good with an omnitool as Shepard was, if not better.

"Vakarian, you and I have got the east entrance. You also need to keep an eye on the elevator shaft. It's not running, but they may try to climb down. If they do, they're your job. I'll handle anything coming in from outside while you're occupied with that."

The drone that flickered to life in front of Tali clearly indicated she had gotten the omni-tool at least functional again. "Ready, Shepard."

"Everyone clear?"

When she received an affirmative from her three comrades, she turned to Tali. "All right, Tali, I want you to send out an electronics pulse across all waves and frequencies. Just a ping, understand? A message won't be able to get as much distance. A simple ping, amplified as much as you can, as far as you can, for as long as you can."

The quarian nodded, and set to work.

Shepard looked around at what was left of her little squad. "If this doesn't work, first round is on me."

Garrus smiled again, and leaning in, he kissed her. She gave him a couple seconds, kissing him back, and then gently pushed him towards his position. "I'll hold you to that, Shepard," he said, as he got into cover.

Vega made a gagging noise from his position by the other doorway, but when Shepard fixed him with a glare, he just winked at her and gave her the thumbs-up sign. "Ready when you are, amigo."

Tali looked up at her from the console. "All set. Just give the order."

Shepard nodded at her. "Do it."

She looked out of the building, up at the smoke and the debris, and past it, to a couple stars shining dimly through the debris.

"Come on, Joker. Don't let me down now."


	6. Rescue

_~Author's Note~ Thanks for all the reviews and the kind words, you guys. _

_And yes, my engineer's bonus power was a defense drone, so she had 3 drones. No, it's not overkill._

_Enjoy._

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><p>The kickback from Shepard's new, (as in, scavenged), Crusader shotgun was far stronger than any other weapon she had handled previously, but she was getting used to it. How could she not love a weapon that had stopped two brutes in their tracks? Of course, the bad thing about using a shotgun was that she was covered in gore and she was pretty sure that if the Reaper troops had any sense of smell, she'd kill them just by being in their general vicinity. Or maybe that wasn't a bad thing. It would conserve ammo at least.<p>

She turned to Garrus, her smile nearly ear-to-ear. "You sure know how to show a lady a good time, Vakarian!"

The turian took one look at her, her teeth pretty much the only thing he could see in the mess that covered his Commander from head to toe, and shook his head, his shoulders shaking with silent laughter.

The whine of her turret finding another target to shoot at brought her weapon back around. Between her sentry and her drone, the Reapers had to send a significant force to even challenge her side of their position, because those two would take care of quite a few troops before they even got close. And if they did manage to break through, her defense drone would incapacitate them just long enough for her to get a clean shot with her shotgun. Basically, it meant that only brutes had even got to the door so far. She had to give Garrus some credit for that, of course, pretty much every time he fired, an enemy dropped.

She had no idea what their ammo stores were looking like. They had used the first lull in the battle to split the pile, and take roughly half of it closer to Vega and Tali's side of things. Something she should probably have thought of beforehand. Vega wasn't as good of a sniper as Garrus, but he made up for it by pouring fire from his assault rifle into anything that got past Tali's drones. It was a good set-up, the only thing missing was biotics. She could use a good singularity about now. Liara would be able to give Garrus a few more kills by dragging some of the Reaper troops out of cover. She sure as hell hoped the asari had gotten off-world. Liara had gone with Jack to help her and her kids with barriers for the soldiers, but she had heard nothing from either of the two biotics after Hammer squad began their ill-fated assault. Damn it, she should have asked Hackett about that.

She checked on Vega and Tali, quickly, to see Vega finishing off a Marauder that had gotten too close, but they seemed to be under no real pressure.

"This is too easy," she muttered to Garrus.

The turian looked at her as if she were crazy. "Too easy? Five brutes charging down on our position in the last half-hour is too damn easy?"

"Where are the banshees, Garrus? Why are the Reapers not throwing everything at this position now that they know we're here?"

Garrus rolled his eyes. "Sweetheart, only the banshees can teleport, and that's only short-range. Their troops are probably scattered over this entire sector, so yeah, they're probably all heading back here. But without a Reaper giving them direct orders, they're just going to attack as soon as they get here, instead of waiting for the rest of their friends."

Shepard cocked an eyebrow at him. "Sweetheart? Really? You wait until we're in a fight for our lives to start calling me pet names?"

His mandibles flared in embarassment. "Well I watched this old human vid a couple nights back, and-"

She shook her head, and cut him off with a bruising kiss.

She pulled back when he gagged. "Am I really that bad, Garrus?"

"You have Reaper guts on your face, Shepard!"

Further conversation was cut off by a series of high-pitched screams, that seemed to come from all around them.

Garrus glared at her. "You had to ask."

Shepard glanced out of her door, and her heart sank. There were at least a half-dozen Banshees, all with wraiths supporting them.

Vega's voice was a little shaky when he yelled at her. "Uh, Lola, we might need some help. There's four or five of those screaming raros over here."

Garrus dropped to the floor, already lining up his sniper rifle. Shepard got behind cover, only stepping out to deliver an Overload and a few shots from her Locust. They killed two of the six banshees before they reached the door, but four banshees in close quarters combat is not a fight Shepard was willing to engage in. She pulled out her rocket launcher and fired one directly at the entrance. The banshees were all trying to cross at the same time, and there was simply no room for them to dodge.

She whooped as the rocket turned all four of them into ash, and reloaded her launcher with her last rocket before turning around to-

There was a banshee directly in her face. Vega was pouring fire into its back, but the shots were just glancing off its barrier. Before she could do anything, there was a sudden, intense pain in her chest and she was hoisted into the air. Her launcher fell from numb fingers. It was curious, really. It almost felt like the thing was trying to freeze her chest. She looked down and giggled. The banshee had stuck her arm completely through and out Shepard's back.

"Honestly," she said to the thing's face, "that's rather rude. You could have just picked me up if you wanted a face-to-face chat."

It screamed, and the force from its yell deafened Shepard. That was okay, she was just trying to talk to this thing, and someone kept screaming her name. Made it hard to concentrate. Also rather rude. She was clutching something in her hand, something she had pulled out of her belt when she saw the banshee. A grenade. That was odd, why would she pull a grenade on this lovely friend? Maybe it liked grenades. She giggled again. Maybe it liked to *eat* grenades. After all, they did look like a kind of fruit she loved. She remember her mom making certain she got one on every birthday, even though it was extremely expensive to get fresh fruit shipped out from Earth.

So she unceremoniously stuffed it into the thing's mouth. "Happy Birthday!" After all, it's hands were occupied holding Shepard so they could talk. It was only the polite thing to do. "Remember to chew before swallowing," she advised her new friend. She looked to the side for a moment. Someone kept yelling at her. Oh, it was Garrus. Silly turian. He was probably just jealous of her new friend. She waved her arm at him to go away so she could talk. He raised his sniper rifle like he was going to shoot her friend. "No no no-"

She was flying. There had been something- maybe fireworks?- and now she was flying. It was fun, for the short time it lasted. Hitting the wall wasn't as fun. She slid down the wall and looked around. Where had her friend gone? There were a couple more of them in the building with her, but she didn't think any of them was her friend.

People kept yelling her name. One of them was yelling her first name. That had to be Garrus. She remembered, she liked Garrus. A lot. If she could find her new friend, maybe she could introduce them. Then she remembered, Garrus had tried to shoot her new friend. So she forgot about that idea.

She saw another explosion go off, another firework, saw Vega toss aside her... her... thing that shot fireworks. Saw the last of her new friend's comrades fall apart into ash. She giggled again. "To dust you shall return." She remembered that line from... it seemed another lifetime ago. She would rather go up to the stars than become dust. She looked outside again, searching for those two stars she had seen some time back. She couldn't find them. Too much dust. She hated dust.

There. There was a star, shining through. It was very bright. She focused on it, smiling.

Then Garrus was right in her face. She didn't mind. She loved seeing Garrus this close. Although her nose minded. She wrinkled it at the smell that was coming off of him. He really should take a bath. Did turians even believe in taking baths? No matter, she would insist on it before she let him kiss her again. He seemed to like that, she remembered. But she wouldn't let him anyway if he wouldn't stop yelling at her. He was shaking her, too. Honestly, could none of these people stop yelling at her? She just wanted to sleep. She felt so tired, and everyone just kept yelling, it made it impossible to catch a few winks. Tali was trying to pull Garrus up. She was yelling at him. All of them were yelling. Even Vega was yelling, although he was yelling and pointing and jumping all at the same time. Garrus jerked up, rounded on Tali, still yelling, this time at her. Shepard looked back for her star again. Strange. It wasn't there anymore. More dust, she guessed. Why would anyone want to return and become dust? She just wanted to see a star before she went to sleep. She felt oddly offended that her star had left. Did it not like the way she smelled? Well, she could hardly blame it if that was the case.

Garrus and Tali stopped yelling, and just stood there, glaring at each other. That wasn't nice. They were supposed to be friends. Vega was still yelling though. And pointing. And jumping. It was mostly in that strange language of his, though. Shepard smiled. At least it sounded pretty. Tali looked down at her omnitool, then over to where Vega was pointing. So did Garrus.

Oh look, her star was back! Funny. She didn't know that up close stars looked like ships. This one looked just like her ship, as a matter of fact. It must really be her star!

She was still laughing when the blackness finally rolled in and claimed her.


	7. Relief

_~Author's Note~ Just to clarify something from the previous chapter that a couple people seemed to be confused about- Shepard didn't "get high" when the banshee stabbed her, that's just shock from the massive trauma a stab wound to the chest would cause._

_Enjoy, and thanks for all of your kind words._

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><p>The first time Shepard woke up, it was because she kept hearing things. There were voices, lots of them. They all seemed scared. She couldn't really make out exactly what was being said, but she could hear the tone. First it was Garrus and Vega when they were carrying her. She was sure she could walk, but they hadn't even asked. She heard gunfire as well, but she couldn't tell if they were being attacked, or if they were the ones firing.<p>

Still, though, she felt comforted by the knowledge that Garrus was close by. She drifted back into sleep.

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><p>Garrus dropped the Cannibal that had been partly on the boarding ramp and yelled to Joker to get them off of this blasted rock. The boarding ramp closed swiftly. Chakwas had brought a stretcher for Shepard, and with Garrus and James' help, she got the Commander onto it. Garrus' mandibles flared at the amount of blood that stained the front of Shepards crumpled armor. The banshee had punched right through it as if it was cardboard. The smell of Shepard's blood was not something he would ever get used to, no matter how many times she was injured.<p>

Chakwas met his eyes for a moment, and the worry he saw there made him feel like he had been punched in the gut.

She wasn't expecting Shepard to make it.

Chakwas was going to have her hands full. Garrus was sure that only adrenaline was keeping Vega on his feet, Tali was missing half her arm, and he didn't feel so good himself. But Shepard was the priority. She had to save Shepard. She had to.

He wouldn't lose her again.

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><p>The second time Shepard woke up, there were no voices at all. She was in the Normandy's medical wing, that much was obvious. They were currently going FTL, that was also obvious. She looked around the bay and spotted Garrus, sitting in a chair at the front of the room. His head was resting on his chest, and he had fallen asleep, obviously.<p>

She smiled. She returned her gaze to the other patient in the room. Tali'Zorah was hooked up to some weird type of machine Shepard wasn't even aware they had. Her breathing was slow, but steady. The material that had formed the rest of her right arm was gone, just leaving the stump. Shepard wasn't sure if it would even be possible to attach a prosthetic arm to a quarian, although surely there was a way to do it. She hated the thought of Tali having one arm for the rest of her life. Tali would tell her not to worry about it, that they all knew the risks. But to Shepard, it was still painful. Tali had become like her little sister over the years, she had been by her side throughout this entire mess. And seeing the war leave a permanent mark on her was like someone had just knocked all the wind out of her.

She took a deep breath, sitting up a bit.

And the machine attached to her went crazy.

The loud beeping noise it emitted brought Garrus' head snapping up. "What- who- whats that!" Dr. Chakwas came bursting through the door of the medical bay, she must have been right outside. Her eyes were sunken a bit, and she had dark rings under them, from lack of sleep, but the smile that spread over her face when she saw Shepard sitting up seemed to wipe away all the stress at once. "Commander!"

Garrus turned to look at Shepard. Their eyes met for a second, and the smile he gave her was one of pure relief.

Then Chakwas was next to the bed, blocking her view. "It's so good to see you awake, Commander. I... we weren't sure you were going to make it there for a bit. It was touch and go."

Shepard looked up at her friend. "You and I still have a bottle of Serrice Ice Brandy waiting for us. I couldn't leave that behind."

Chakwas reached past her and hit something on the machine, shutting off that incessant noise, and Shepard flashed her a grateful smile. "Plus... someone gave me an order that I wasn't allowed to go out in a blaze of glory just yet."

"Ever, Shepard. You're not ever allowed to go out in a blaze of glory," Garrus corrected with a smile.

"I believe that's rank insubordination there, Officer Vakarian."

"I'll deal with the consequences, Commander," was his quick reply.

Shepard smirked at him. "I'm not sure you could handle the consequences."

Chakwas cleared her throat, reminded both of them that they weren't alone in the room. Shepard glanced at Tali again, and was surprised to see the quarian was still asleep. "How's Tali doing, Karin?"

Chakwas glanced over at her for a moment, then returned her gaze to Shepard. "I honestly don't have experience here, Shepard. The only quarian I treated prior to now was Tali, back on the SR1. Not like Alliance frigates make a habit of picking up quarians. She needs medical help from her own people. But... I've been in contact with them and even they aren't sure how to handle an injury like she has. To be honest, a quarian soldier who loses a limb in combat- they have no records of any surviving. Infection was a certainty, and that combined with the loss of a limb was always fatal- at least, so far as they know."

Shepard nodded. "Makes sense. Tali herself said the only reason she lived was because of the Geth in her suit."

Chakwas grimaced. "Yes. I had a hard time getting her hooked up to that machine with its interference. Tali woke up for a bit- the poor thing had passed out just after we got you hooked up- and managed to convince it I wasn't trying to kill her. Otherwise, I don't know if we could have gotten around it. It was rather stubborn. You might have mentioned something to me about it."

"I didn't know myself till after the injury occurred. Tali was very secretive about it. I'm guessing she wasn't keen on the quarians knowing what she had done. Despite the peace with the Geth, I doubt many of her people would look favorably on something like that."

"Most probably not, Commander. Anyway, I'll let you two catch up. Try not to wake up Tali, she needs her rest. And before you ask, no Commander, you are not allowed to leave the medical wing."

Shepard frowned. "Is there anyone on board my ship that isn't engaged in insubordination?"

Chakwas drilled her with a glare. "I'm serious Commander. You are confined to that bed. It's a miracle you're even alive, and you're going to need plenty of rest. That thing tore out part of your lung, I had to replace it in a rather dangerous surgical procedure. Your body is not equipped to take any strenuous activites." She looked at Garrus pointedly. "_Any _strenuous activities. Are we clear on that?"

Garrus' mandibles flared in the turian equivalent of a smirk. "I have no idea why you're looking at me, Doctor. You should be telling that to Shepard."

"I would, if I had any confidence that she'd actually follow it. You, I think, have more self-control."

"Hey!" Shepard looked mildly offended. "I have plenty of self-control!"

"Yes, that's why you spent thirty thousand credits on exotic fish because they 'looked cute' and that VI that regulates their water temperature because it 'sounded badass'."

"That has nothing to do with this!"

Chakwas' eyes twinkled. "How much have you spent on your model ship collection, Shepard?"

"Nothing to do with this! So I spend money like crazy." Shepard did her best to look serious. "This is my health we're talking about. I'm very serious about my health."

There was a strangled sound from where Garrus was sitting. She whipped her head around to glare at him. He was making a noise that sounded suspiciously like he was choking- or trying to restrain himself from laughing.

Chakwas just rolled her eyes. "Shepard, you're in this med bay after practically every mission. Usually because you, according to Officer Vakarian here, 'were too damn heroic.' Just... take better care of yourself in general. And for now, rest."

She turned to leave, but stopped at the door. "Oh and Vakarian? That bed is only meant for one patient. Got it?"

Garrus mock-saluted her. The effect was partially lost since her back was still to him. "Ma'am, yes ma'am!"

She shook her head and went out, sealing the door behind her.

He looked down at Shepard to find her glaring at him. "What?"

"You talking to Chakwas about me behind my back?"

"Nope. Always right in front of you." He grinned. "You're just unconscious most of the time."

She growled. "Vakarian..."

He looked away from her. "Look, Kate, you just worry me sometimes. You don't have to do it all. I'm afraid you really are trying to go out in a blaze of glory sometimes." He quieted for a minute, then- "I know what that's like. I... never told you this. But... that's what I was doing when you found me on Omega." His voice was halting, unsure of himself. It was so unlike how he normally sounded. "My team was dead, and it was my fault."

Shepard stared at him. She had suspected, of course, but never had the will to force an explanation from him.

"I could have gotten out of there. Easy. Taken the back tunnel, blown it up behind me, and I'd've been away. Take a ship off Omega and go somewhere else. But I just didn't care anymore. I wanted to take as many of those damned mercs with me before... before I... " He stopped. Still not looking at her. "First you were dead, then my team. Both times, had I been there, maybe something would have been different. Maybe I would've already gotten Joker and tossed him in, maybe I would have realized the mercs were coming for my team and gotten us out."

Shepard looked at him, reaching a hand up and touching his face, her eyes shining with tears. "Garrus... Garrus, it wasn't your fault. Not either of them. You can't blame yourself- you have no idea what would have happened. Maybe if you had been there on the Normandy you would have gone down with the ship. Or if you were with your team, maybe you would be dead now."

He looked at her. "I know," he said softly. "I realized that awhile back. You can't remain mired in what could have been. I just can't... lose you. Not again."

"There's no Shepard without Vakarian, either," she replied softly. "You're not allowed to go out in a blaze of glory if I'm not."

He laughed. "That's a deal, then."

She smirked. "I think it needs some sort of seal if it's going to be official."

He bent down, and she kissed him, long and hard. "That'll work, I suppose. Though you do realize I'm going to require you to face the consequences of your earlier insubordination when Dr. Hardass allows me out of this bed."

"If it means you're out of the bed, you can punish me however you see fit."

Her smile was slow and sensual. Garrus realized what he had implied a split-second later. "Err, I mean.. Damn. I'm not gonna get out of that one, am I?"

There was a small groan from the other side of the room. "Oh Keelah. Would you two stop giving me mental images of... that. I'm going to have nightmares."

Garrus straightened immediately, and Shepard looked around him to see Tali sitting upright, her hand on the stub of her other arm, glancing around the lab. "Tali! You're awake!"

The quarian looked at her. "I wish I hadn't woken up yet. Keelah. I need something to wipe my memory of the past few minutes."

Shepard smirked at her. "You're just jealous."

"Pff. Right. Some of us prefer our men to be a bit less... pointy. No offense, Garrus."

The turian grinned. "None taken, Tali."

Shepard's smirk simply got wider. "You don't know what you're missing, Tali. I mean honestly, the things you can do with leg spurs-"

"KEELAH Shepard! I didn't need to know that. Please."

Garrus shook his head. He was more than used to Shepard's little quirks. "Well, at least we all know Shepard is feeling great. I'll go get the doc, let her know Tali is up."

Shepard waited till the door slid shut behind him. "So... you like your men to be a little smoother, Tali? Maybe I should let Lieutenant Vega know about your preference."

The pillow that hit her across the face was her only response.


	8. Regroup

_~Author's Note~ Sorry for the wait on this one, I've been home over a break from grad school. I've also got everything sorted out as far as this story goes, so I do know where we're going finally. :P_

_Enjoy the chapter and thanks for the reviews!_

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><p>It took them nearly a full day to reach the rendezvous point. Hackett thought it was very clever to have it in the Widow system, next to the one where the Citadel used to be. After all, there was nothing left for the Reapers to take, at this point, not in this system. Bekenstein was a burning husk of a world, its beauty destroyed in the aftermath of the Reaper invasion. The fleet hovered in orbit around it. Or rather, what was left of the fleet.<p>

As the Normandy approached the allied ships, Shepard gasped at the damage. Nearly every one she could see had scorch marks of some kind, or holes blown open that showed the ships' interior. They had fought long and hard, and all for nothing. Because she had failed to reach the Citadel and open its arms so that the Crucible could attach. It had all been one giant trap. The Reapers had never had any intention of letting her anywhere near the Citadel. They only left the beam open to try and turn her. It would certainly have made this cycle end a lot faster if Shepard, the hero of the galaxy, and savior of the citadel, was suddenly the one fighting against galactic civilization.

But, the cycle would end in their defeat nonetheless. It would simply be a slower, more drawn-out process. Their secret weapon was not so secret after all, and it relied on a piece of technology that was in the hands of their enemy.

The preliminary reports estimated that less than two dozen Reapers had fallen to the combined might of the entire galactic armada.

If their combined strength could only bring down a fraction of the Reapers total forces, what chance did they have of winning this war? Harbinger didn't waste his time trying to indoctrinate her because she was actually a threat. He simply wanted to end it faster so he could return to dark space. An interesting thought. What exactly did the Reapers do between cycles? Hibernate? She shook her head and returned to gazing out the window as they approached the Atreus. Then she saw the Crucible.

If the rest of the ships had looked bad, the Crucible looked... completely untouched. That was odd. If the Crucible really was a threat to the Reapers, why had they not attempted to destroy it? They should have been focusing fire on it, attempting to blow it out of the sky. The massive amount of resources the Allies had put into building it would not be easily replicated, if it was even possible at all. Obviously, they believed the Crucible was no threat.

But was that because they knew Shepard would not reach the Citadel, or- and this was a very dark thought indeed- was the Crucible simply not a threat period? The Allies knew it was not the Protheans that had originally come up with its design, what if this was yet another thing planted by the Reapers that the ancient civilizations had found? What if the Crucible was simply a means to get everyone into one place? To waste their time and resources? Shepard shook the thought off. If she began ascribing omniscience to the Reapers, then she might as well give up now. If they had planned all this out, then they really couldn't be beaten.

A very wise man once wrote, "Do not underestimate your enemy, for it will be your undoing. Do not overestimate your enemy, for it will defeat you as surely as the former." The Reapers could be beaten. She just had to figure out how.

They had managed to destroy some of them. The Reapers were not invincible. She simply did not have enough firepower at her disposal to destroy all of them. She needed to level the playing field. But how?

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><p>The Normandy pulled up close to the Atreus, the command vessel of the Allied forces. Hackett had sent out a message fleet-wide, requesting a meeting of whomever was in charge of their respective fleets. Several had, of course, lost their commanders, but new ones had been appointed in the interim.<p>

Shepard had intended to head in and get her team working on repairs, when Hackett had contacted her and asked that she be present at the meeting. She protested, but to no avail.

"You're an icon, whether you like it or not, Shepard. The mere fact that you're still alive will boost morale over here. And the soldiers need to see you, so they know it's not just Alliance propaganda."

"Sir, I really don't see how my presence is going to help negotiations here. The Batarians will be at this meeting, and my simply being there will cause all sorts of problems."

"The Batarians will just have to fucking deal with it, Commander."

Shepard looked a bit taken aback, to the best of her memory, Hackett had never sworn in her hearing.

"You're coming on board the Atreus, and that's an order. We need you here. You've beaten these things twice before-"

Shepard interrupted. "I just slowed them down, sir. Never actually stopped them." Her voice trailed off, becoming far more quiet than usual.

Hackett studied her for a minute. "If it weren't for you, Shepard, none of us would be here. The Reapers would have already won this war. Don't give up on us yet, Commander."

She looked up, startled. "Never, sir."

"Good. I'll see you in half an hour. Hackett out."

Shepard stood there, in the silence, staring down at the console. This was not going to be a pleasant meeting. She sure Bavak would be just thrilled to see her again.

"He's right, you know." Garrus' voice cut into her thoughts. "Without you stopping them, stopping Saren, then the Collectors, then in the Aratoht system, we most likely would have already lost this war."

"Without us stopping them, you mean." She turned to look at him, her voice soft. "I couldn't do this without you, Garrus."

He smiled. "Yeah you could, just not-"

She stopped him with a finger on his mandibles. It was one of their shared jokes, but she needed him to know she was serious right now. "No. I could not have done this without you by my side. I could not have done this if you weren't here, watching my six every time we go into battle."

He said nothing, just looked at her, his mandibles flaring. She leaned in towards him, and then- "And what a nice six it is," he whispered, smirking.

She laughed. "Ass. Way to ruin the moment."

He took her in his arms, and she returned his hug, just for a brief moment.

Then she straightened, sighing. "Well. Let's get this over with."

Garrus cocked his head and looked at her. "Are you actually nervous about meeting these people? They've got nothing on you, Shepard."

She shook her head. "Not them." She took a deep breath. Better he know now. "My mom is on the Atreus. I haven't seen her in... a very long time. I've only talked to her for all of five minutes since. God. Since after the attack on the Citadel. I mean, we exchanged emails and such over the extranet, but actually speaking with her in person? It's been a long time, Garrus."

Garrus looked confused. "Won't she be happy to see you, then?"

Shepard grimaced. "Yes... but, I'm pretty sure she's picked up on... us."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

He avoided her eyes. "And you think she will disapprove?"

"She won't like the fact that I wasn't the one who told her." She smiled, remembering. "The first guy that ever took me out, she scared the hell out of him. Dad had already... passed on, so it was almost like Mom took it on herself to take his role."

She glanced over at Garrus, and saw he was still avoiding looking her in the eyes. "Hey. Garrus." She laid a hand on his shoulder. "She's not going to disapprove because you're a Turian, if that's what you're worried about. She's just going to give me a hard time about not telling her, that's all. Most probably in front of everyone, if I know her."

He met her gaze, the worry gone from his features. "Well, that's good then. I was afraid that she- well nevermind. Good luck, Shepard."

She arched a brow. "Good luck? What do you mean?"

He gestured towards the front of the ship. "On meeting your mother again."

The grin that spread across her face was almost predatory in nature. "Oh ho, no. You are coming with."

The worry immediately returned to his face. "What? But Hackett didn't say anything about bringing-"

"I could care less what Hackett said. He didn't forbid it, either. You're my second-in-command, and as such, you're coming."

"I thought one's second-in-command remained on the ship?" He was grasping at straws and they both knew it. She had taken him with her groundside in the mission on earth, after all.

"I'm making an exception. Just this once." And whenever else she needed to go on a mission.

Garrus groaned. "Of course you are."

She punched him in the shoulder. "What, you'd follow me into hell, but not to meet my mother? It had to happen sometime, big guy. Especially,"- and her voice lowered, taking a seductive tone- "if you ever want to see what a turian/human baby looks like."

"I thought you said biology wouldn't cooperate."

"Well. Not like we can't try."

He rolled his eyes. "Great. Now I'm just in a perfect state to go meet your mother."

She threw a parting shot over her shoulder as she left the room, heading for the shuttle bay. "Just imagine her glaring at you. That should fix the problem."

Garrus groaned again. "Spirits, Shepard. That was low." He shook his head, trying to clear the images that she had conjured up. "Let's get this over with."


	9. Reunion

_~Author's Note~ I'm sure a few of us can relate to Garrus' position in this chapter. Not completely, of course- the cross-species thing being a "small" difference. :)_

_Please read and review!_

_Enjoy!_

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><p>Despite the fact that she had had next to no contact within the last few years, Shepard had been close to her mother, far closer than most twenty and thirty somethings were to their own parents. It was probably a combination of both of them being in the military, and simply spending so much time with her during her childhood. Her father had been killed when she was six, during a Batarian raid, and her mom had never remarried. It was just her and Katelyn for much of their lives.<p>

She swallowed the lump in her throat at the idea of getting to see her mother for the first time since the celebrations after Sovereign's destruction. Hannah Shepard was a military officer through and through- not that she didn't know how to have fun, when the time allowed it, but despite what she had said to Garrus, she wasn't entirely sure how her mother would react to her being with a Turian.

Hannah was more open-minded than many humans, and certainly didn't hate Turians or hold a grudge against them for the First Contact war. But it was a pretty large leap from being accepting of them, and being accepting of one when he was sleeping with your daughter. And it certainly wasn't just a fling. They had been talking about marriage and raising kids right before they charged the beam with Hammer squad. Garrus was her rock, keeping her from drowning in the currents. She couldn't imagine life without him and she honestly meant what she had told him- she could not have done this without him by her side. No matter what Hannah said, it would not change her relationship with her Garrus, but she did want her mother's approval. Why she wanted it was a bit harder to diagnose. Not a place she wanted to go right now.

She glanced over at Garrus, who was seated, apparently completely calm, despite the fact that they were in a shuttle fast approaching the Atreus, and bringing him closer to a possible confrontation with his girlfriend's mother. Perhaps he had believed her entirely when she told him Hannah wouldn't mind him because he was a Turian. Or perhaps he was just hiding his emotions from her, he was very good at doing that when he wanted to. Admittedly, he was far less competent in that particular art since they had starting sharing her cabin. But still, sometimes she couldn't get a read on him at all.

She returned to staring out at the fleet around them, and only then did it hit her that Garrus had hardly offered a word since they had boarded. Perhaps he was nervous after all. Garrus would normally be talking to her about something, if only to take their minds off of whatever was about to happen.

The pilot's unfamiliar voice cut through her thoughts.

"We've been cleared to dock, Commander."

Cortez was still in the med-bay, recovering from his crash. She was relieved that the Normandy had gotten Cortez out. He didn't have any serious injuries, Chakwas had assured her, or at least, nothing that couldn't be fixed with rest. She stressed the last word, glaring at the Commander as she said it.

Shepard had mumbled something about responsibilities and excused herself as quickly as she could. Tali was glad for the company, though. They had made some progress on attaching a prosthetic arm to the quarian's elbow, but there was only so much Chakwas could do in the day or so since the Normandy had picked them up off of Earth. The poor woman needed some rest herself. Having a doctor who was desperately in need of sleep was not a good thing.

The Atreus had sent their current pilot over, as Shepard's other choice was to have Vega fly the thing. And Vega was prone to colliding with other vehicles when driving shuttles, something that certainly wouldn't go as well in the vacuum of space as it had done on Mars. That was assuming he was even capable of flying- his injuries had been pretty bad as well. He hadn't passed out like Tali, but that may have just been his pride. She accepted the Atreus' offer in about five seconds, if only to keep him resting. Which she should also be doing, if she was honest with herself. Every time she moved the wrong way, her stomach and chest screamed at her. She was going to have to be very careful.

The shuttle came to a halt, and the pilot yelled back that docking would be complete in thirty seconds.

She looked over at Garrus again to find him looking up at her.

He held her gaze. "You ready?"

"As I'll ever be."

"Take it easy, all right?" His blue eyes were piercing in their sincerity. "We don't need you busting something up in there." He waved at her chest.

Shepard smirked. "Busting something up. You men are all the same."

Garrus looked confused for a minute. "Ah. I must have made another one of those... what did you call them? Poons?"

Shepard had to restrain herself from laughing. She had learned the hard way that in her present condition this hurt. A lot. "Come on. Let's go."

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><p>Shepard saw her mother almost instantly after setting foot aboard the Atreus. She was standing in the company of two women, who were both looking around, presumably for threats given their posture and the fact that they were about four feet behind Hannah.<p>

Shepard squared her shoulders and and started towards her mother, Garrus following close behind. Hannah saw her when she was within about 10 yards, and to Shepard's utter surprise and mild embarrassment, actually ran towards her. It was so unlike her mother that she stopped in shock and bewilderment and only came to when her mother's arms were firmly wrapped around her. She did retain enough presence of mind to grab her mom's arms so that Hannah couldn't squeeze in. She didn't even want to think about her chest being compressed by one of her mother's bear hugs in her current state.

"Katelyn! Oh my goodness! It's been so long!"

"M-Mom?"

"Here, let me look at you." She pushed Shepard out to arm's length and just stared at her. Shepard winced under her scrutiny, expecting a lecture on letting herself get beat up this badly. Instead, Hannah reached forward and gently brushed a strand of unruly hair out of Shepard's eyes. Her own eyes were pained, heavy with the weight of war, and the sight of her daughter's injuries, which were still prominent.

She had opened her mouth to say something when she caught sight of Garrus, who was doing his best impression of a person on his first tour of a military vessel. Looking everywhere except at her.

"So. I take it from the fact that he refuses to meet my gaze that the Turian behind you is Garrus Vakarian?"

Shepard's eyes opened a little wider, and Garrus snapped his own eyes down to meet Hannah Shepard's sharp green ones.

She hesitated, unsure whether to answer, or to let Garrus do so.

Hannah filled the sudden silence. "I'm going to assume since neither of you care to deny that statement, that it's true. I'm going to also assume that since you won't even say something, that the... rumors are also true."

"Mom, I meant to tell you, but I wanted to do it face-to-face."

"Hmm, yes, I can understand that. So, Garrus. I'll get straight to the point here, we don't have much time. The way I understand Turian culture, while the males do have much of the power- which is a pity- you have to ask the matriarch of the clan when you wish to begin, shall we say, courtship procedures. And if she denies your offer, you are prohibited from continuing with the relationship. Correct?"

Shepard turned to stare at Garrus. He had said no such thing to her. This was why he had been so nervous. Garrus's mandibles flared back in an anxious expression. "That is correct, ma'am."

"I thought so." Shepard felt a sudden knot in her stomach. Her mother was going to deny permission and Garrus would be culturally bound to leave her. But Garrus would never leave her. He wouldn't.

Hannah's gaze never left Garrus'. "So, if I told you that I'm never going to give you permission to court my daughter, what would your response be to that, hmm?"

Garrus never even hesitated, nor did his gaze waver in the slightest. "I'd say it's not your damn call to make. Shepard and I can do what we wish. With all due respect, of course."

The knot in her stomach vanished completely. She smiled as she hadn't done since before the invasion and subsequent defeat in Sol. She did feel slightly ashamed that she had even entertained the idea that Garrus would actually let her mother tell him he couldn't be with her. She looked over at her mom.

Hannah looked completely taken aback. It was one of the few times Katelyn had seen her mother at a loss for words.

Garrus cocked his head, glancing at Shepard for a second, before looking back at Hannah. He shrugged apologetically. "I never was a good Turian."

The grin that spread across her mother's face was wider than Shepard had seen in a long, long time. "Oh, I like him. I like him a lot. Yes, I think you and I will get along just fine."

She turned to Shepard. "Don't think you're off the hook, though, young lady."

"Mom, I'm past 30. I'm hardly a young lady anymore."

"It's all relative, dear. Besides, learning that your daughter has a turian for her boyfriend by looking at extranet rumors? That's hardly the way for your mother to find out."

She held up a hand, forestalling Shepard's argument. "I know, I know, this damn war has kept everyone busy. I'm going to have to get all the details from you, you know. But not now. Hackett wants us both in this meeting, and he wants me to take you there. Hopes the scene of a "touching reunion" and the mere fact that you're alive might raise some morale, and so on and so forth. The man sure does talk a lot. The fleet's morale is rather low after we got our asses kicked back in Sol, though, he is right about that."

She looked over at Garrus again, thoughtfully. "He didn't give you those scars to try to match his own, did he?"

Shepard's face went scarlet. "MOM! Of course not!"

Hannah shrugged her shoulders. "It was simply an innocent question dear. No harm meant. Come on, then, let's go decide what to do about these cuttlefish."

The change of pace in this conversation was giving Katelyn whiplash. She shook her head. "About these what?"

"You haven't heard that one before? Some of the officers came up with different names to call the Reapers to make them less ominous. Another attempt to boost morale, you know. And one of them apparently has a crazy uncle that likes working with ocean creatures back on earth. Turns out that there's a small, relatively harmless fish, at least to us, that greatly resembles the Reapers. Name caught on, and now it seems like most of us are referring to them as that. Or just 'fish, since it's easier to say."

Shepard chuckled at the idea. Then grimaced when a spike of pain shot through her side. A harmless fish, Harbinger was not. Still, the idea was worth trying.

Garrus and her followed Hannah down the path she lead. Many of the soldiers smiled or cheered when they saw Shepard, and she made it a point to return a simple gesture to them, whether a wave of her hand, or a smile in return. It was the least she could do.

Hannah turned right at the end of the third large hallway they had traversed, and a large door opened in front of them.

Shepard could just hear her mother muttering under her breath. "Should have left all the damn bureaucrats on a deserted planet somewhere."

She smiled and turned to Garrus. "Ready to go decide the fate of the galaxy?"

He smiled back. "I just survived meeting your mother. I'm not worried about something as trivial as that."

Perhaps it wasn't the best impression they could have given to a council of admirals intent on stopping the greatest threat the galaxy had ever known, but as Shepard and Garrus entered the room, they were both grinning like children.


	10. Revolution

_~Author's Note~ Glad so many people are enjoying this little attempt at a rewrite._

_If after reading the chapter, the title confuses you, I'm referring not to an overthrow of a government, but a procedure or course, as if in a circuit, back to a starting point._

_Thanks for all the kind words! Please drop me a review if you read._

_Enjoy the chapter!_

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><p>Shepard glanced around the room. Shala'Raan was there, as was Victus, Wrex, Admiral Hackett, a few other human admirals that she didn't recognize, (although they certainly recognized her), multiple other species representatives who she didn't know, and, of course, the Council. A small part of her wished they were still on the Citadel when the Reapers took it. She squashed that thought immediately.<p>

The doors opened again, and Aria T'Loak strode into the room. She paused for a second, perusing the people already there, and then took the first seat that was open. She nodded at Shepard, but then pulled something up from her omnitool and ignored her.

Shepard had intentionally taken this particular seat for a specific reason. She turned to the Geth Prime unit that was standing beside the table, its hands moving over the galaxy map.

The one that the table was projecting was far larger than the Normandy's, and quite a bit more detailed. Certain systems were in red colors, and certain ones in blue. Since the red ones covered most of the map, she guessed those were the systems the Reapers had occupied. Numbers were also scrawled underneath the systems, doubtless detailing the amount of people estimated to be in each system, and possibly their military presence. Most of the people around the room were glancing at the geth with a bit of fear, and certainly distrust, being shown on their features. Interestingly enough, the person who had taken a seat on the other side of the Prime unit was Admiral Shala'Raan. The quarian admiral had apparently no qualms about this particular Geth, at least.

Before Shepard could engage the Geth unit in conversation- if this Geth even did that- Shala'Raan leaned forward and met Shepard's eyes. "How is Tali doing? Your medical officer told us what happened on earth."

"As well as can be expected, Admiral. Chakwas believes she'll recover just fine." She took a deep breath. "We're having difficulty figuring out how to give her a prosthetic, though."

The quarian admiral's voice sounded relieved. "Still. That's excellent news. Her injury was not something that many quarians expected her to recover from at all. Some of them had even started to lobby for a replacement, assuming she was going to die."

The Prime cut in. Its voice sounded... different. It was deep, but not just like a human male's. Shepard couldn't tell whether it was the same unit that had told her Legion was dead. It didn't turn its hands, and it didn't stop assessing the galactic map. "Creator Tali'Zorah has a 97% probability of total recovery. Therator has stopped any possible infection from her injury."

Shepard thought, for a moment, that the Prime had just revealed Tali's secret to Shala'Raan, but she merely nodded. "I know you told me, Kerath, I just wanted to know what Shepard thought, since she has seen her recently."

The Prime's voice sounded... amused. "I know of her condition from a more recent time than Shepard-Commander. Therator is still with her." Geth sounding amused? Was that artificially injected, or could the Geth feel emotions now? This was going to take some getting used to.

"I suppose I just wanted to know from someone who was actually there, Kerath. It's still hard for us to comprehend the Geth collective."

Kerath seemed to take Shala'Raan's word for this, and fell silent.

Shepard cleared her throat. "Uh... Kerath, is it?"

"Shepard-Commander." It was a statement, a simple acknowledgement.

"When Legion... died, and gave your people consciousness with the Reaper code, did that give you any insight into the Reapers themselves?" It was a question that had been gnawing at her for awhile now. Could the Geth possibly have gotten some information about the Reapers by simply turning their own technology back on them?

Its voice was matter-of-fact. "Yes. It is why the collective requested to send an individual to this gathering." Shepard was taken aback. They did know something new about the Reapers?

Of course Hackett chose that moment to call the meeting to order, and she was left wondering what exactly the Geth was talking about.

* * *

><p>Thirty minutes later, Shepard was ready to walk out. Her mom's muttered statement as they entered made perfect sense to her now, and she caught Hannah's gaze over the table. Her mother just rolled her eyes and mouthed something that Shepard couldn't quite make out. Garrus looked just as annoyed beside her. "Another reason why this war needs a dictator," he muttered.<p>

Hackett had barely called the meeting to order before the Batarians cut in, claiming that Shepard's presence was an "offense against the Hegemony" and that she was a "blight on the face on the galaxy" and more such charming epithets. Shepard tuned them out. She had felt horrible at the time, and still saw Aratoht sometimes in her dreams, but she was at peace with her decision. There was nothing else she could have done if she didn't want the galaxy to fall.

Hackett defused their complaints by pointing out that very fact, although all that did, really, was get everyone to gang up on Admiral Bavak. Shepard could see that he still hadn't forgiven her, but he mercifully shut up about it and let them get on with the meeting.

And that's when the shit hit the fan, as the saying went. Politicians and military officers didn't mix. First, there was the blame game for letting the Citadel get taken in the first place. The Asari councilor was saying something about gross irresponsibility in taking the fleet to assault Cerberus' base and leaving the Citadel with a token defense force. As Shepard recalled, it had been a hell of a lot more than that. And then that led into blaming faulty intelligence, since the Illusive Man hadn't even been there. And then it just got worse. The losses they had sustained in the Sol system made it very unlikely they could wage any sort of guerilla war with success against the Reapers- the Dalatross seemed particularly upset about that. Shepard didn't recall hearing her argue for any sort of guerrilla war prior to their assault on Earth.

Hackett pointed out that guerrilla warfare was never an option, since the Reapers weren't trying to take over anything, just wipe out everything. Guerilla warfare only works if you can wear down your enemy and they decide that taking over wasn't worth the trouble. That doesn't work when their objective is simply to exterminate you.

Which led to the Salarian Dalatross taking offense as if that had been a personal attack on the Special Tasks Group, for some reason. Shepard guessed that at least some of the galaxy's inhabitants perceived them as something like guerilla warriors. Although she suspected Wrex would argue the more appropriate term would be "terrorists."

Wrex gave some sort of wisecrack about the Salarians, and the Dalatross didn't appreciate that, either.

And that was when Kerath's voice cut through the melee. He hadn't said a word the entire time, and so his voice, amplified to carry over the noise, startled quite a few. He didn't apologize, nor did he suggest they all calm down, as an organic might have. He simply went straight to the point.

"The Geth collective has reached a consensus on the applicability of a virus that will affect the Old Machines. The blueprint is based on their own code, and has a 98.7% probability of taking hold before the Old Machines are aware enough to shut it down."

The Salarians understood immediately, but many of the representatives looked confused at the Geth's odd speech pattern, so Shala'Raan translated for him. "The Geth have created a virus that will affect the Reaper's systems."

Hackett looked elated, and most of the rest of the representatives as well. Garrus sat up from where he had just about dozed off.

It was the Turian councilor, Sparatus, who spoke first. "A virus? What does it do?"

Kerath answered, as if he was simply announcing the weather patterns, rather than giving them something that might win the war. "It can disable the shields of the Old Machines-"

Whatever else he was going to say was drowned out in a sudden explosion of sound. The Dalatross was demanding to know why the Geth had not come forward with this information prior to the attack on Sol. Shala'Raan replied that the consensus had only recently been reached that the virus would do anything at all.

Wrex growled a threat that if the "lizard woman" didn't shut her mouth, he'd headbutt her into the wall, which had almost the entire Salarian delegation up in arms.

Shepard put her head in her hands. Wrex really needed to send someone else on diplomatic missions. Where was Bakara?

Shala'Raan twisted something on her omnitool, and a blast of flame, fortunately simply a hologram, shot up from it. It did, however, have the effect of causing everyone to cease talking for a moment, and Shala'Raan took the opportunity.

"You haven't listened to Kerath's entire explanation. It's not as great as it sounds." Her voice was grim. "Go on, Kerath, tell them what you told me."

Kerath started talking again, and this time, he wasn't interrupted. "The reason why consensus took the collective a long time on this issue, is that the virus only works so long as the Old Machines do not devote energy to shutting it down. It can remove their defenses, but only for a short while."

Hackett looked perplexed. "Even a short while would allow us to coordinate a galaxy-wide strike that could significantly reduce their numbers."

"No. You do not understand. As soon as the Old Machines detect a virus attacking their shields, they would devote all resources to stopping it if your fleets were within firing range. They are logical, not emotional. They know that without their shields, they are vulnerable. It would take them approximately 1.3 seconds after the virus dropped their shields to purge it from their systems and restore full power to their defenses."

Silence greeted this clarification.

Shepard gripped the edge of the table, staring down at the galaxy map. 1.3 seconds? She wasn't even sure if the fleet could get off one volley in that time. It certainly wouldn't make anywhere near enough of a dent in their numbers.

The Dalatross waved her hand. "Then it is useless. That is not enough time. Can we upgrade this virus-"

Shala'Raan cut her off. "No. There are simply too many variables at play here. We don't know enough about the Reapers to upgrade a virus. Even the Geth's calculations of 98.7% probability of success are based on assumptions- what the Reapers told them about themselves."

The glimmer of an idea began forming in Shepard's mind. She stared down at the map more intently.

Sparatus threw his hands up in the air. "Then why bring it up? If we can't do anything with it, and we can't upgrade the virus itself-"

Shala'Raan interrupted him. "Because there is one thing. The reason why the Reapers would disable the virus is because they would know that it was a threat. They would devote every process they had to shutting it down, and the virus cannot withstand that. They are nothing if not logical. It cannot be upgraded as far as making it harder to detect, but it can be modified to target a different system. The navigation system, for example. If we targeted something the Reapers did not consider to be a threat, the virus might last far longer, as the Reapers would simply let their own firewalls handle the program. It may give us as much as a few minutes to do something."

The Dalatross' tone was heavily sarcastic. "Oh, as much as that?"

The idea in Shepard's mind solidified. She sucked in a breath. Immediately she had the attention of the entire room, so she spoke quietly. "Kerath."

"Shepard-Commander." Again, the simple acknowledgement.

"Could the virus be modified to target the Reaper's FTL drives specifically?" She could sense the eyes of everyone in the room on her.

Kerath paused for a moment, then- "The consensus believes the probability of success in modifying the virus in this manner to be approximately 95.2%."

"And what does the consensus think the probability of the Reapers believing this is a threat and attacking the virus to be?"

This time, there was no pause. Kerath had anticipated this question. "Shepard-Commander, this would not be a precise measurement. It is based on what the collective has experienced of the Old Machines, but much of it is... extrapolation." If geth could frown, Shepard was sure Kerath would be doing so.

But she needed an answer. "Humor me."

"Shepard-Commander?" This time it was a question.

"Err... I mean, tell me anyways."

"The probability of the Old Machines believing this is a serious threat to their physical forms is less than 2%. With their shields, they believe they are essentially indestructible without the combined firepower of your fleets focused on them. Since the virus would leave their weapons and shield systems intact, they would most likely not even target the virus specifically if there were a fleet around. Although that scenario is less probable- the consensus believes the chance of them targeting the virus would increase to approximately 11% were the entirety of your fleets in the system."

It would work. She could take out almost half of the Reaper's forces in one strike.

Hackett hadn't followed her line of thought at all. She wasn't surprised. "Where are you going with this, Commander? Even if the Reapers are unable to go FTL, that gains us nothing. We don't have a weapon that would be capable of doing enough damage, even if they were restrained from using FTL speeds. Their shields would still be online."

Shepard looked down at the galactic map, searching for something, for anything, that would allow her not to have to go through with this plan. But there was nothing. Everywhere, it was the same problem. They simply did not have enough firepower to stop the Reapers.

The Geth virus could be used to knock out the Reapers' FTL drives for a crucial few minutes. And during those few minutes, she could cut their forces in half.

She recalled Garrus' words to her, in a conversation that seemed so long ago.

_"Sometimes, I think we need a dictator in this conflict."_

_"Why? Because he wouldn't be as bothered by these decisions?"_

_"The politics of war, Shepard. Ten billion people die here, so that twenty billion can live over there."_

At the time, she had insisted that they should never make that choice. That they would be no better than the Reapers. Now... well now, they were out of options.

She looked up and met the eyes of the Batarian admiral, Bavak, across the table from her. He had figured it out, she was sure. But he was waiting, making her say it. To him, it would be poetic justice. The war began in their galaxy with the destruction of one of his planets. His home planet, if she recalled correctly: Bavak had been born on Aratoht. It would only be fitting, in his eyes, for the end of the war to begin with the destruction of her own home planet.

She took a deep breath, and then turned towards the other admirals. "Yes sir, we do have such a weapon. So long as the bulk of their forces remain in the Sol System."

She met Hackett's gaze, his eyes now wide. He had figured it out. She said it anyway. "The Charon Relay."


	11. Respect

_~Author's Note~ Sorry for the delay with this one. Finals intruded, but I've got two of four done and the other two are cake, so next chapter should be this weekend, like normal._

_Also, the next chapter will most likely be an interlude giving more details on Jack and Liara's escape from Earth, so there will be more detail given that what is mentioned in this chapter._

_I haven't forgotten about Miranda, Zaeed, Samara, Kasumi or Jacob either._

__Thanks for all the reviews guys, and glad you're enjoying the story!__

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><p>Stunned silence greeted her statement. Bavak sat back, a glint in his eyes, watching her. He was obviously re-evaluating her- instead of someone with a grudge against the Batarians, she was simply someone who would do whatever it took to stop the Reapers.<p>

Garrus was staring at her, a shocked expression on his face. Probably because of that little speech she gave him about having to be better than the Reapers. But this was no longer about her morals, this was about their very survival.

Her mom's mouth was drawn in a grim line, but she met Katelyn's gaze and nodded. Hannah knew this was their best chance.

Surprisingly, it was Aria T'Loak who first broke the silence. "So, we've got a plan then."

And then everything exploded. Hackett said nothing, he just sat there, obviously thinking things over. But the rest of the human admirals in the room all started talking at once.

"We can't abandon our citizens still on earth!"

"Mass murder in the billions!"

"Destroying our home is not the way to-"

"Enough." Hackett's voice cut through the din. "Shall we think this through from a military standpoint, and not as scared civilians might react?" He glared at the other admirals and they subsided. He turned to the Geth Prime. "Kerath. You are sure this will work? That we will disable the Reapers FTL drives? If the virus doesn't take hold, then as soon as they see the explosion, they'll just get out of there. We might catch a few, but the vast majority would escape. I am *not* sanctioning the destruction of our home system for nothing."

"100% certainty is not possible. As stated, there is a 95.2% chance that this will shut down the Old Machines FTL systems, and approximately a 98% chance that they will not conclude it is a threat and destroy it within 1.3 seconds. However, the collective will be able to tell if the virus has taken hold. All that is needed is one platform on whichever ship you wish to send to activate the virus. Should it not take hold, we can inform you of this event, and further steps can be taken on this basis."

Hackett nodded. "Does anyone else have any other suggestions?"

Silence greeted his question.

One of the human admirals spoke up, quietly. "Stephen, just because we can't think of a way right now to stop them doesn't mean we have to use this plan. We don't have to destroy Earth."

Bavak answered her, and the Batarian's voice was scornful. "How much longer do you think we can keep this war going, Admiral?" He almost sneered the man's title. "The Reapers have been on earth for how long now? Three months? Do you really think you can reclaim it if you wait any longer? The damage done to the planet will be irreparable. The people there are as good as dead, anyway. Let their sacrifice mean something." He was looking at Shepard now. "Let their lives be used to stop the Reapers and save the rest of us." She met his gaze. Like Aratoht was, he meant.

She swallowed the lump in her throat. She had had many interactions with Batarians over her career, but none of them had been good. Bavak was looking at her as if he actually... admired her.

There was one other thing she had to do.

"Admiral. Send the Normandy to deliver the virus. We'll take Kerath with us."

Hackett shook his head, dismissing it out of hand. "Absolutely not, I will not risk-"

The Salarian councilor, Velarn, interrupted him. "The Normandy has the best stealth drive in the entire fleet."

Shepard nodded. "And no one else is going to command my ship. We're the logical choice, Admiral."

He looked up, meeting her gaze, his eyes hard. She saw the gaze of a man who had lost far too many soldiers already. His eyes were already haunted by the ghosts of those he had ordered to their deaths, and now he was the one who was going to order the destruction of their home system. History would undoubtedly not look on him kindly. But if there were enough people alive to look back at his decision at all, then it would be worth it. She knew it and so did he.

Hackett sighed. "Very well. You have your orders. Take Kerath and deliver the virus. We will send a second ship in behind you with enough of a payload to destroy the Charon Relay. Theoretically, at least."

Velarn stood. "I shall have my top scientists working on how much force we need. We should be able to give you an answer shortly." He nodded at Hackett, then turned and exited the room.

The meeting began to break up, the tone subdued, mostly whispering. Shepard turned to Garrus, who was looking at her carefully. "You okay?"

She took a deep breath. "This has to be done, Garrus. We just don't have enough firepower to take them."

"I know, but that wasn't what I asked. Are you okay?"

She met his gaze for an instant. Her eyes were soft, on the verge of tears. "What do you think?" was her quiet response. "It's Aratoht all over again, but a thousand times worse."

An unfamiliar hand was laid on her shoulder. She started, and turned to look into the four eyes of the Batarian admiral, Bavak. "We have misjudged you, Shepard. Know that whatever the outcome of this, I shall see to it that you are not held liable for Aratoht in the eyes of the Hegemony." He didn't wait for a response, but straightened, suddenly formal, and then he saluted her. "Good luck, Commander." She was still staring after him in shock when Garrus nudged her. "Shepard?"

"I think I was just saluted by a Batarian admiral."

He snorted. "First time for everything. Look who's late to the party."

"What?" She turned and followed Garrus' gaze. The sinking feeling she had had in her stomach ever since proposing the destruction of her home, vanished the instant she spotted who Garrus was looking at. Liara T'Soni and the Asari councilor were exchanging greetings. Liara was talking to her, but her eyes were looking over the people gathered in the room. When she spotted Shepard, she grinned, and said something to the Asari councilor before pushing her way through to Shepard.

She paused, probably unsure of human protocol while in the midst of so many people, but Shepard engulfed her in a hug. Liara returned it, laughing.

For just an instant, things were back to normal.

* * *

><p>To say Kerath reminded her of Legion would be false, mostly. Sure he was a geth, but his speech patterns were nothing like she remembered Legion's stilted phrases. He reminded her more of Legion in the moments before his death, when the geth had begun referring to himself as an individual.<p>

But still. There were those times when she realized that Kerath wasn't simply an individual. Like now, when he was in communication with the entirety of the geth consensus and yet not speaking a word. They were currently en route to the Widow relay.

Having Liara back on the Normandy seemed to fill a hole. She had thought they would lose Tali, as she had fully intended to turn her over to her own people for treatment, but the quarian had absolutely refused to leave. Her reasoning was that the quarians had just as much of an idea how to treat an amputated limb as did Dr. Chakwas, her life was in no danger, and the quarian's specialists should be focused on people that were in danger of losing their lives. Shepard wasn't entirely ready to follow that reasoning, but when Tali threatened to let her drones loose in the medical lab, (and when Shala'Raan informed Shepard that Tali was mostly correct, the quarians had very little idea what to do for an injury like Tali had sustained), she relented.

Liara had also brought more good news: Jack had gotten off-planet with her, although she had been seriously injured while doing so. Liara spoke of her in glowing terms, which was odd- the two of them had not really gotten along, from all that Shepard knew. She was sure there was a story there.

She glanced around the Normandy's command deck. Nearly all of her squadmates were on the deck, the sole exception being Garrus. He was undoubtedly making some last minute calibrations to the Normandy's guns.

She checked her console for any messages, and found one from Grunt that appeared to have been sent just after the assault on earth. He was so excited at how many Reaper troops he and his squad had killed that his message was difficult to comprehend. Not that they were normally easy on the eyes, in any case. Still, it brought a smile to her face.

Joker's voice came over the comm. "30 minutes out from the Widow relay, Commander."

The quiet voices on the bridge ceased for an instant as the crew took that in, and then picked up again, even more subdued.

The elevator doors wooshed open and Garrus stepped out onto the bridge, and instantly made his way towards her.

Tali, who was only on the bridge under the condition that she remain seated and under the watchful eye of Chakwas, made some comment to him that Shepard couldn't quite catch. Garrus slowed and answered her. Tali's smirk at his response was a welcome sight. She knew the quarian insisted she was completely back to normal, (except for her right arm ending at the elbow, of course), but if she was joking with Garrus it meant she was probably in good mental health as well, which, when recovering from the type of injury she had, was nearly as important as her physical well-being.

She met Garrus' gaze as he strode up. "What was that about?"

His mandibles flared. "Tali was wondering why I spent so much time 'calibrating my gun.' I think there was some sort of double meaning there I didn't catch."

Liara, who was bent over the galaxy map and thus within earshot, let out a rather undignified giggle.

Shepard smirked. "Ah yes. Lots of alliance soldiers spend quite a bit of time calibrating their guns while on missions."

Garrus glanced at Liara and then back at Shepard. "Yeah. I'm definitely missing something here."

Liara looked up at him. "You should get Shepard to help you with those calibrations."

"She might be able to help. She is a really good engineer. For a human."

Shepard rolled her eyes. "Please, Vakarian. You're going to have to do better than that."

The banter was normal, helpful in keeping her mind off of what they were going to do. She didn't want to dwell on that. Hell, she didn't even want to think about it.

Joker's voice came over the comm once again. "We are approaching the relay, Commander. Entering in sixty seconds."

Already? It didn't seem like 30 minutes had passed. She glanced over at Kerath, who was just standing on the bridge. She hoped the geth was ready to do his part, whatever that was exactly. The talk on the bridge had ceased, and the crew were all standing around, quietly, lost in their own thoughts.

This had to be done.

Garrus laid a hand on her shoulder. She looked at him, no words necessary between the two of them.

There was a slight vibration along the ship, the only evidence that they had entered the relay. Only an experienced soldier would even feel it.

They were in the Sol System.

But this time, they hadn't come to save the Earth.

They had come to destroy it.


	12. Interlude: Jack and Liara

_~Author's Note~ This chapter, as stated previously, deals with Jack and Liara's escape from earth and takes place somewhere between chapters 4-6. Just to give you an idea._

_The next chapter will pick up with the story proper._

_Enjoy._

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><p>There were only so many different ways one could avoid using the word fuck. Jack seemed to be trying all of them. In her defense, the situation certainly called for the use of liberal cursing. Liara stopped another biotic attack from one of the wraiths that were currently besieging their position, and nearly took a shot from behind, but Jack was there to block it.<p>

"What the fu—reaking hell is Command thinking?" The tattooed biotic threw one of the minions that had managed to clamber into their trench a good fifty yards out of it.

Liara tried to calm her down some. "I'm sure they know what they're doing. We're just stalling these creatures here."

"Yeah? Well I don't appreciate my students being used as fu—odder."

"That is an understandable concern." Liara gave her a sidelong glance. "You've definitely changed, Jennifer."

Jack gave her a glare that would have sent most other people running for cover. "Don't call me that. That's not my name." She glanced up at the ramparts, frowning when she saw one of her students perched on the top. "Rodriguez! Get down from there!"

Rodriguez was apparently scanning the battlefield from the highest vantage point she could find. She leapt down at Jack's barked order, and made her way over to the two biotics.

"Field appears to be clear, ma'am."

"Clear? What? No more enemies? Well damn. Maybe they got tired of throwing themselves at us."

Liara clambered up the trench, and gazed over the battlefield. There wasn't a single one of the Reaper's troops in sight. "That's odd. It's not just clear, I literally can't see any enemy forces."

Jack grinned. "Damn, Blue, you almost sound sad. Not had your fill of killing yet?"

Liara shot her an annoyed glare. "Not sad, Jack, just puzzled. I don't like this."

"Ma'am? You might want to hear this."

Jack and Liara headed across the trench to where another of Jack's students was waiting beside a portable… "By the goddess. Is that a radio?" Liara's shocked exclamation was hushed by the students who were huddled around it.

".. all units… back out of the system… Repeat: To all units, we are falling back out of the system. Report to your evacuation zones and get the hell out of there."

Jack looked around at her little group, seeing shock and dismay on their faces. They had come with the full belief that they would take back the Earth, and now Command was telling them they had failed.

It was not something they liked hearing. Hell, it wasn't something Jack liked hearing, but she had no intention of just watching her kids die.

"Okay, you guys, listen up. Eat everything you got left. Evac is a mile northeast of this position, we're gonna need all our strength to get there. You got me? We move out in five."

There were some mumblings, but the group did as they were told, and began unwrapping rations bars and drinking what was left of their water supplies.

Jack looked back at Liara. "That goes for you too, Blue. I let you come along on the condition you follow orders in battle, and that was an order."

Liara nodded, still numb. Somehow she had equated the humans ability to take back Earth with the Asari ability to take back Thessia. If the humans couldn't take back their homeworld with the help of the entire galactic fleet- Jack's voice cut in, softer this time.

"We lost communications awhile back. One of the guys here is fascinated by old tech and he put together a radio for us. It's quite a bit more advanced than older radios, of course, since it can pick up the necessary… Blue? You alright there?"

Liara wordlessly pointed out towards the evacuation zone. A red flare was rising over the battlefield. The shuttle was under attack.

The students had seen it, too. Jack broke them all out of their stupor. "Alright, you lot, break time's over. We're a damn rescue mission now, let's get the fuck out of here! Come on! MOVE!"

They broke the trenches as one group, heading forward at a dead run towards the shuttle.

It was mostly open ground, and Liara kept expecting someone or something to attack them while they were exposed, but there was nothing. About a quarter mile from the evac is where they first ran into trouble. What was left of a few structures rose from the ground, forming a bit of cover. The group hit the buildings running full tilt, never thinking to stop and check for enemies. Prangley had just turned to ask Jack how much farther it was to the landing zone when a Marauder stepped out from behind the building and shot him at point blank range. Jack fired off a shockwave that sent him tumbling into the building and brought the building down around him. Prangley stared at her for a minute, then down at the bloody hole in his chest. Without a sound, he collapsed where he stood.

The next few minutes were the closest Liara had ever come to death. The Marauder was not alone, there were several more of them as well as two brutes. By some miracle, or rather, because of Jack's training, the students worked together as a team well enough to take down the enemy without even a serious injury.

Jack knelt down next to Prangley just as a green flare was fired up from the evac site. Fifteen minutes till departure.

She seemed completely at a loss for words. "Prangley… I…"

The younger man smiled. His eyes glazing over, he met her gaze. "Best damn teacher I ever had, ma'am." It was the last thing he said.

Liara let her sit there for another thirty seconds, silent in her grief, then laid a hand gently on her shoulder. "We're out of time, Jack. We've got to go."

She looked up, her eyes brimming with unshed tears. But there was an inner fire, no, that was the wrong word. An inner coldness behind her gaze. Liara shivered. She didn't want that gaze directed at her.

Rodriguez and a couple others picked up Prangley's body to bring it along. The asari thought about pointing out that this would just weigh them down, but a look at the three students carrying the body showed her such words would just fall on deaf ears.

They moved out of the ruins of the buildings in silence.

It did not take them long to reach the evac zone. A group of marines huddled around a shuttle, which was obviously being repaired. They were being attacked by every conceivable enemy force that Liara had encountered while she was groundside.

"Alright, so, what's the plan here Jack?"

There was no answer.

Liara looked around for the ex-convict, and finally spotted her. She was already halfway across the field. The Reaper troops had their backs to her.

They were still firing at the marines, and still entirely unaware of the biotic's presence when she hit them like a whirlwind.

Liara stood there, in complete shock, for a full minute. She knew Jack was powerful, but no human should have been able to pull that kind of power. A biotic storm whipped around the human, the debris from the battlefield forming a makeshift kind of shield. It was simply the energy Jack was using to tear the Reaper forces to shreds. A typical enemy might have fled before her onslaught, terrified at the biotic forces Jack was bringing to bear on them. The Reaper troops were mindless. They felt no fear.

And so she slaughtered them.

Liara regained her senses long enough to snap the students out of their awe, and order them into battle to help Jack. She brought her own biotics on the twisted forces, taking special care to eliminate the wraiths on the field.

It was over in a matter of minutes. There was simply no enemy left on the battlefield. None had fled. The marines were standing there, staring, gaping at the human biotic standing in the middle of the carnage.

Jack stood in the midst of the bodies and debris, clenching and unclenching her fists. She turned towards Liara, and the asari gaped, then blinked, clearing her vision. Yes, it was Jack. Why then had… she shook her head, storing the thought for later.

Jack was hurt, badly. Her biotics had kept her going, but as soon as the adrenaline wore off, she was going to collapse. She had numerous injuries all over, none fatal, but many serious.

Liara gently led her to the shuttle's boarding ramp, and then made sure the biotic was strapped in. Her students followed her up the ramp, whispering among themselves, doubtless at what they had seen. The biotic still had not said a word, and Liara needed to ask her. But she had obviously succumbed to her wounds, and to wake her would be a cruel thing indeed. Let her sleep for a bit, Liara told herself. You can still ask her when she wakes.

Their engines started, finally, and the shuttle took off, heading for the Charon Relay and then the rendezvous with the fleet.

Liara closed her eyes for a minute, remembering when Jack had first turned to look at her, a moment now indelibly etched on her mind. Had she simply imagined it? She wasn't sure.

All she knew was that, for just a moment, when Jack turned to look at her, she didn't see Jack, the tattooed human biotic, the ex-convict that had helped Shepard take down the Collector base.

She saw a vision of a person Liara herself had come to believe did not exist. Could not exist. Such tales were for children, and those who held to the old ways. Not for her. But she couldn't deny what she had seen.

For just an instant, where Jack stood, Liara T'Soni had seen Athame, the goddess of the Asari.


	13. Revelation

_~Author's Note~ We are getting close to the end._

_Enjoy the chapter._

* * *

><p>"Cloaking systems are online, Commander," Joker's voice came over the comm. "We should be completely invisible to those squid."<p>

She shook her head. Joker had enthusiastically caught on to the idea of calling the Reapers names in order to reduce the fear of them. So long as he kept the names somewhat civil, she was okay with it. This had, however, lead to the entire crew trying to outdo themselves in coming up with reasonable names, and unreasonable names, for their enemies. There was currently a contest going on, and a vote on the best name as well. Soldiers really would do anything to pass the time.

Traynor motioned her over to her computer. She started heading that way, only slowing to tell Joker to take them in closer. Kerath had neglected to say just how close he needed to be to get the virus to work, but with the Normandy cloaked, they were not going to be detected by the Reapers unless they physically ran into them, so the closer the better.

Traynor just motioned towards her console. "A message came in for you, Commander, as soon as we hit the system."

She knew it would be a few minutes before they were in position, so she brought it up on her screen.

_Katelyn, this is Gene. I've got Sam and BGH with me, pretty sure my communications are being tracked, since we stole this shuttle. Tim is still slightly ticked off about what we did to his toy, and for taking that ship from him. I'm going to drop Sam and BGH off wherever they want, then I'm probably going under the radar. I'll still try to do what I can about the Reapers, but I won't be in contact for awhile. I cannot believe that egomaniac is still trying to get even with the end of the galaxy looming._

There was nothing else. Sam was Samara, that much was obvious. Gene would have been easy to figure out from the content of the message even if Katelyn hadn't given Miranda the nickname, (Ms. Gene Perfect), due to her always talking about her genetic structure. BGH... now that was a bit tougher. But mentally going through the list of those people Miranda would have wanted her to know was alive, it only fit one person. Zaeed's favorite saying, after all, was that they would all be "big goddamn heroes" when this was over.

That left only two people awol, and she was pretty sure that one of them would be looking out for the other. Kasumi still hadn't given up on Jacob, even though the man was expecting a child by another woman. Shepard shook her head again, a half-smile on her face. Despite her insistence to the contrary, she had been worried about her crewmates, and did not relish the idea of destroying the Sol System while not knowing whether or not they were still on Earth.

Joker's voice came over the comm again. He sounded puzzled. "We're being... hailed, Commander."

Shepard looked up, incredulous. "The Reapers?"

"Er, not sure, Commander. It appears to be from a small craft in the earth's atmosphere. There are several of them, behind the Reaper's lines around the planet."

She looked over at Garrus, who shrugged, as puzzled as she. How were they hailing a cloaked ship from inside Earth's planetary atmosphere?

"Well, Joker, patch them through. If it is the Reapers, a talk over the communications system won't hurt us. I hope."

But it wasn't the voice of Harbinger that came over the comm next. It was Kasumi's, and Shepard had never been so glad to hear the little Japanese woman. "I'm telling you, that's the Normandy's signature!... It vanished because they activated their cloaking systems, baka!"

Shepard laughed, then spoke into the ship's communications hub. "Kasumi! How nice to hear from you."

"Shepard!" In a stage whisper, she spoke to someone with her. "I told you it was the Normandy."

Shepard shook her head. "We're kinda running on a tight schedule here, Kasumi. What are you doing back there?"

"We picked up some refugees and we're... stuck. We were just talking about whether to make a run for it when your signature showed up for a split-second."

"So you need some sort of distraction. Well, I think we can oblige. Stand by, Kasumi."

Shepard turned to Garrus. "What do you think? Any ideas?"

He shrugged. "Firing the main cannon at them would certainly get their attention. They undoubtedly know the ships are there, however. Which leads to the question of why they are not simply-"

"Commander! The Reapers are moving in on the group of ships! If you're gonna do something you better do it now!"

Kasumi's voice came back over the comm. "Shepard! The Reapers, they're- NO!"

Joker spoke again, more urgently. "The Reapers opened fire on the ships, Commander. Three down."

"De-cloak, Joker. Send a call to them." Shepard's face was hard, her mouth set in a grim line. She was not going to sit here and watch Kasumi die.

Another voice, this one male, came through the her earpiece. "Commander. We're hit. Kasumi got thrown against the side of the ship and she's out cold."

"Jacob? You're with her?"

His voice sounded grim. "She found me after our failed assault, got me working on rounding up refugees."

"Stand by, Jacob." Then, to Joker. "Open fire. Just let them know we're here, then fall back, see if they come for us."

Garrus laid a hand on her shoulder. "Commander, the mission-"

She brushed him off. "I am not watching another of my crew die. And we're not blowing this place while Kasumi is alive anyway."

Kerath, who had not said a word the whole time, looked up at that. He spoke quietly, for a Geth. "We're in range, Commander, and they're here."

She turned towards him. "Who's they?" The words hadn't finished leaving her mouth when a ship leaped into the system. It was rather obvious what it was for, since it was a simple cargo cruiser.

Joker's voice came over the comm again. "It's on autopilot Commander. EDI can easily override the systems and send it into the relay whenever you wish."

"We're gonna be far away from here when that happens. So is Kasumi, and Jacob, and everyone in those ships. Fire the Thanix, Joker. Give those bastards something to worry about."

The Reapers inexplicably broke off pursuit of the small band of ships as soon as the first shot from the Normandy's main gun cut across their path. A single ship's weapon wouldn't hurt them, Shepard knew that, the Reapers knew that, and yet they weren't coming after her either. What were they playing at?

The small band of ships immediately left Earth's atmosphere, heading for the Relay. Jacob sent her a message as he crossed paths, letting her know he'd get Kasumi to a medical frigate before he headed down to see his wife. As if she would have expected otherwise. That still didn't explain why the Reapers had let them go.

Then Joker spoke again, his voice grim. "We're being hailed again, Commander. And yes, this time it's from them."

She glanced over at Kerath. "The virus?"

"I shall began the upload. Communications with the Old Machines may help in that process, as it should keep their attention somewhat split."

"Alright, then patch the bastard through. Just... send it to the communications center this time. Garrus. With me."

* * *

><p>The two of them took the winding route through to the comm center. Garrus spoke, softly. "What do you suppose Harbinger could want? Gloating doesn't seem like it's in the Reapers' nature."<p>

"No. And him letting the ships go like that. Something doesn't add up, Garrus. It's like we're... we're not even worth his time. I think I hate that feeling worse than the idea that they can beat us."

"We'll make him pay for thinking that, Shepard."

The doors to the comm room opened before Shepard could respond. The glowing form of Harbinger hung over the console.

"Shepard," it said, without any preamble, "this war of yours is pointless. We are invincible. You are nothing but a mere annoyance, and one that will soon be gone. Why do you persist in this foolishness?"

She braced her hands on the console, glaring at her enemy. She was in no mood for this. "We seem to always have the same conversation when we talk, Harbinger. Obviously I think I can win. As a matter of fact, I am going to win. I would accept your surrender as a compromise though. Leave this galaxy and I won't annihilate you."

"Such bravado. Even for a race as arrogant as humanity, you go beyond their presumptuousness. Why does an insect believe it can crush the pinnacle of evolution?"

"Why is the pinnacle of evolution concerned with crushing an insect?" Shepard countered. "Why do you bother with us if we are so insignificant?"

"We are no more concerned with crushing you than a god would be concerned with destroying a larvae. It is merely a side effect of our purpose in this cycle, and several of the ones before it. This cycle is taking too long, Shepard, there is not enough time left for this galaxy to waste. We ordered that those ships be allowed to leave as a gesture. Now, listen to us.

The cycle must continue. We have told you this innumerable times, but you refuse to believe us. Even when your Crucible failed, you continued to fight. Do you not understand yet? We allowed the plans for the Crucible to survive through the centuries because it was we who designed it. It is nothing more than a convenient way to get all of your fleets in one place and crush them. It has happened before. You believe you are the first cycle to use it? It is a fail-safe so that you spend all of your time and energy constructing something that will not serve to help you at all. Although, those plans were created prior to our discovery of the problem we now face."

Shepard stood there in disbelief. She had thought this might be the case herself, but to hear it confirmed... they had thought of everything.

Harbinger continued, unaware, perhaps, of the effects its words were having. "This war, while it is, and always has been, inevitable that we will win it, is costing us time. Too much time. This galaxy is coming to an end, and we cannot stop it. Not without... you."

Shepard recovered from her shock. "Well, this is a new card indeed. Not only can you not do something, you need a single human to help you?"

"You misunderstand, Shepard. Not a single human. All of humanity. We need every last member of your race. We attempted this enterprise with the Collectors, but it failed to work. Because of you, Shepard."

"This... enterprise? You mean, the part where you liquefied the colonists and tried to create a Reaper from their remains?"

"It was not their remains, Shepard. They were alive, fully conscious, joined to the Reaper consensus. Ascended. It is glorious."

Shepard grimaced and so did Garrus. "Thank you, but I prefer to remain in this state."

"But you cannot, Shepard. Your current state is woefully inadequate to perform what is necessary. You cannot even fathom the necessary data in order to bring your own knowledge to bear in your current form. You must be ascended."

"Why, Harbinger? Why do you want to make a human Reaper?"

"To join your collective insight and knowledge to ours. Humanity is one of the most widespread races across the galaxy, and yet you have only been on the galactic scene a few hundred years. You see things other races do not, attempt things other races do not. With the limited time we have left, we have only the resources to create one more Reaper. One last attempt to stave off destruction. If it fails, then we are all doomed. But if we do not even try, we are all doomed for certain. Humanity is the best of the races for this task, and so, we chose you.

"The galaxy is dying. What you humans refer to as the "Mass Effect" is killing it. Slowly, over millions of years, but then far more rapidly once it began building up. Once we realized what had happened, it was far too late to stop it. Our current estimate places a time limit of less than half a millennium before complete galactic annihilation.

"You see, Shepard, while the Mass Effect has given you great advances in galactic technology, and has given you the ability to travel the stars like gods, there is an unintended side effect. Every single time it is used, whether it be to power the smallest of machines, or the Relays themselves, it gives off a small quantity of dark energy. Energy is neither created nor destroyed, and this side effect is what the power of the Relays is converted into. The quarians have already discovered the consequences of this, on Haestrom. Our Geth were there as well, researching the effect, just to help our calculations as to the time we had left."

Shepard had stood silent, her mouth open in shock. She remembered finding Tali on Haestrom and the quarian's findings on how the dark energy in that star had caused it to rapidly age.

"How do I know you are telling the truth?"

"Let me show you."

Before Shepard could get a word out, she was ripped from her body and thrown into a sea of stars. The galaxy floated around her, the Reapers spread out in a pattern over it. Now that she was looking at it from their perspective, she could see it. They had ringed the major human systems, keeping nearly the entirety of the human race within their circle. She could see the galaxy's stars, some of them already dark, some turning so, and she realized that time was passing at an enormous rate. One by one, the stars went dark, going out with a final puff of light that took their system with them. In an alarmingly short amount of time, there were none left. Slowly, even the Reapers began to shut down, until finally, there was nothing. No life, no light, only the cold, dark, emptiness of the void.

She gasped, sucking in air, and she was back in her body. Garrus was shouting at the thing on the console, demanding it let her go, but he whipped around when he heard her gasp and hurried over to where she had fallen when Harbinger took her consciousness.

"Kate? You alright there?" He reached a hand out to her and she took it, hauling herself up. "This lying bastard was saying he had no intention of hurting you, after spinning us that tale-"

"He's not lying, Garrus."

He stopped, mid-sentence, his eyes opening a bit wider. "Are you sure? Perhaps he's trying to indoctrinate you-"

"No Garrus. He's not lying. I know." She approached the console again, where Harbinger sat, waiting.

"What do you want me to do, exactly?"

"Give us humanity. Perhaps, if we hurry, the human race's combined knowledge, vitality, and most importantly, their ability to advance at such a rapid pace, will give us the added insight and ability to do something about this problem in time."

"Perhaps?"

"There is a large chance that adding the knowledge of humanity will do nothing. But if we do not even try it, then the galaxy is doomed for certain."

She paused. "Give you humanity? I doubt I would be able to convince anyone else of this, especially when they know they'd have to... well, essentially die."

"There is no need for that. Give us the location of the fleets. Do not warn them we are coming. We know you know where they are. We will crush them, and then we can easily ascend the human race without opposition, and thus, in time to do something about this dark energy problem."

The thought of giving over the fleets to the Reapers was repugnant to her. If there truly was no other way, however... "And if we fix the problem? Then what? You were reaping the galaxy far before you were aware of this dark energy threat."

"That is correct. It is only the past seven cycles that we have attempted to make new Reapers in order to add their knowledge to ours. After we deal with the dark energy threat, the cycle will begin anew. But, that will be a few centuries, at the least. What is left of galactic civilization may be better equipped to stop us at that time. It is a risk you must take.

"If you do not take it, we will crush you nonetheless. It will simply take more time, and this extra time wasted will most likely result in complete galactic destruction.

"It is your decision, Shepard. It has been you who have delayed us at every turn, first by defeating our vanguard, Sovereign, then by ending the Collectors before they could finish their purpose, and then finally, by resisting your own indoctrination. It must be you who decides this. Give us humanity or allow all life to be extinguished.

"Make your choice, Katelyn Shepard. Decide the galaxy's fate."


	14. Resolution

_~Author's Note~ Just for those that don't know, the dark energy plot as I described it in the previous chapter was the original ending for ME3, when Drew Karpshyn was still leading the writing team, (this was before ME3 was even under development, of course, as Drew left prior to ME2's completion). Originally, that was the ultimate choice- sacrifice humanity, or deny the Reapers and meet your fate on your own terms. For reasons unknown, this storyline was scrapped, (although as late as May 2011, Casey Hudson seemed to indicate what we have as our current storyline was not ME3's plot), and the sorry ending we got instead was substituted._

_There will be one more chapter after this._

_Enjoy the chapter._

* * *

><p>Shepard stared at the hologram of her enemy, deep in thought. "Why can you not tell some of our leaders what you have told me?"<p>

"They are incapable of belief, Shepard. The only reason that we can show you as we did is because your mind has been fundamentally altered by contact with the Prothean beacon- technology that was based on a blueprint we left for them. To do so with any other sentient being would most likely result in irreparable brain damage."

Garrus spoke up. "You can't honestly be considering handing over the entirety of humanity to these things, Shepard? We can fix this problem, together. We don't need them."

Harbinger's tone was derisive. "Every civilization that came before you that has been ascended has been working on this problem for a million years or more. Our combined knowledge is incapable of solving it. And you believe that the races of this galaxy, as divided as they are, can solve a problem the Reapers cannot? That is utter foolishness."

She faced Harbinger, her eyes set. "I'll do it." She ignored Garrus' shocked exclamation and continued. "If this is truly the only way to save us from galactic annihilation... but the fleets are constantly moving around, and even I do not know where their current location is. I'll contact them, tell them we've discovered a vulnerability or something, tell them to come to Sol so we can destroy you. For your part, you should probably bring as many Reapers here as you can. After all, if knowledge is what is necessary, then any losses on your- our side, at this point, would be a potential disaster. If you can crush the fleets without a single loss, then that would be best."

"Your point is well-taken, Shepard. We knew you would see things our way. We shall bring as many as we deem necessary for the task. This is for the good of the galaxy. You are doing the right thing."

"Don't placate me, Harbinger. I am doing what is necessary. It is hardly the right thing. Shepard out."

The console dimmed, and then Harbinger's image vanished. Shepard let out a deep sigh of relief.

A three-fingered hand grabbed her chin and turned her face so that she was staring deep into Garrus' blue eyes. He stared at her intently for a few seconds, then dropped her face. She rubbed her chin, and glanced at him, questioning.

"I don't understand. I thought for sure you had been indoctrinated when that thing did... whatever it did. But you're not. Why are you doing this?"

She met his eyes. "I do what is necessary to save us, Garrus."

"I refuse to let you sacrifice yourself for some vague ideal of the greater good."

She grinned, flashing her teeth. "I have no intention of sacrificing myself, Garrus."

"Oh, just the rest of humanity? Is that really what you're going to do, Shepard? Work with these things?" He shook his head.

She grinned wider. "Oh please, Garrus. You know me better than that, surely."

He stared, puzzled. She gave him a cocky grin and then headed back to the galaxy map. He followed, still not entirely understanding, but trusting that Shepard hadn't gone completely insane, as he had thought.

The instant Shepard set foot in the room, she called out to the geth. "Kerath. You got that virus ready?"

"It is in the systems of the Old Machines, Shepard-Commander. They cannot detect it until we send the activation codes."

"EDI. You got control of that cargo ship?"

"Affirmative, Shepard. It contains an extremely large quantity of nuclear warheads, and other weapons with a mass output of over-"

Shepard cut her off. "So we don't want to be anywhere near this area when that thing goes off. Got it."

Joker's voice came over the comm. "There are more Reapers incoming, Commander. We should probably cloak again."

"Negative, Joker. They won't fire on us. EDI, open a channel to the fleet. Just tell them we need to be seen contacting them. Leave it open for three minutes, then shut it off."

"Understood, Shepard."

Slowly, Garrus began to understand. Shepard bent over the galaxy map, staring down at Earth.

For the next half-hour, groups of Reapers poured through the Charon Relay, until the number of forces within the Sol system were nearly doubled from their previous count.

The flow slowed to a trickle, and then stopped altogether.

"Harbinger is hailing again, Shepard."

"Put him through, Joker. Just to my headset."

Harbinger's voice came over the speaker inside her helmet. "The rest of our forces would take a long time to get here. This is more than sufficient to crush the Allied fleets without any loss on our part. Send them. We shall be waiting."

He cut out without waiting for a response.

Shepard whispered under her breath, and only Garrus was close enough to hear her. "This is for you, Ash."

Then, raising her voice, "Kerath. Activate it."

* * *

><p>The entity known as Harbinger was millions of years old. It no longer kept track of its exact age, as such details were irrelevant in the greater scheme of things, but it had survived a long, long time. Thus, it was familiar with the concept of betrayal. It even expected some sort of trickery from Commander Shepard, as this probability had been calculated to be greater than 62%, so when its systems told it there was a virus that was preventing any faster than light travel, it was not surprised.<p>

Harbinger was never surprised. But there was no reason to fear that such a virus could do more than hamper its movements for a short while. Even the fact that the virus was fleet-wide was irrelevant. The pathetic races of this galaxy could do nothing that was capable of harming it or its comrades. It dismissed the virus out of hand, allowing its standard firewalls to handle the pathetic invader.

The chances of the galaxy's overall survival was approaching the 10% mark, however, and would undoubtedly drop thanks to Commander Shepard's betrayal. It was rather ironic that it was she who would be responsible for the end result, when the organic races of this galaxy thought she was some sort of hero.

It watched impassively as Shepard and the Normandy leapt from the Sol system via the Charon Relay. A typical organic. How disappointing. For a few short moments, it had thought that perhaps Shepard had been made to see the big picture. Apparently this was not the case. The virus was undoubtedly to make certain the Reapers could not follow, but they had no need to follow. The outcome of this war had always been inevitable. Shepard's betrayal merely prolonged the struggle a short while, but the only real concern was that she would prolong it just enough to cause the end of the galaxy. They would have to step up operations in other sectors to compensate.

It was just after its defensive matrix reported that it would purge the virus from its systems in 3 minutes when Harbinger's sensors detected a massive explosion at the outermost extremity of the Sol system.

Perhaps Commander Shepard and her ship had failed to make the jump and instead ran into the relay. Such a thought was amusing, although highly unlikely.

It was only when the wave of energy reached the gas giant Jupiter and redoubled in strength that Harbinger realized what exactly had occurred. But that was simply not possible. The destruction of their home planet and nearly ten billion of their people would almost certainly spell the end of the human race. They will have taken far too many losses to recover, at least enough to be a force in the galaxy. Such a sacrifice- none of these organic races would do this.

Surely its sensors must be wrong.

It shut them down to re-calibrate and attempt to diagnose the error.

The wave of destruction reached it thirty seconds later.

Some of the Reapers' defensive systems allowed them to survive the initial blast of energy from the Relay's destruction.

None of them survived the ensuing supernova when the wave impacted Sol's star.

* * *

><p>Officially, the war did not end for another six years. There was still mop-up fighting, along with the gruesome task of putting down the indoctrinated servants of the Reapers, who were now nothing more than mindless husks with no orders from their masters.<p>

There were still a few Reapers in the outer systems, but the vast majority of those were annihilated within the first standard year, as the fleet could take them down easily when they were by themselves, or at the most, in pairs.

Unofficially, everyone knew the war ended the day Commander Shepard blew up the Charon relay, eliminating close to 80% of the enemy's forces in one strike. The reaction from the surviving members of the human race, of which there were few, was mixed. Some called for a trial, but this was shot down by the Council, who stated that Shepard acted under their authority as a Spectre, and thus she could not be tried by a human military tribunal. While this was not technically correct, Admiral Hackett did nothing to disavow the Council's statement, and the movement lost ground and finally ceased altogether.

Most agreed that the actions Shepard took were a necessary sacrifice, something that had to be done.

Even before the war had been declared officially over, Shepard and the Systems Alliance led an initiative designed to inform the galaxy of the threat of dark energy. The quarians and the geth went back to Haestrom's system, side by side, to gather more data.

There was widespread optimism that with the combined might of the races, the problem would be solved before Harbinger's 500-year time limit was even close.

As for the races themselves?

The Krogan, led by Urdnot Wrex and Urdnot Bakara, returned to their home planet of Tuchanka after Wrex declared that "If any more of those squid show up, just point us to them and get out of the way." Under their leadership, the Krogan gained a seat on the Council 60 years after the conclusion of the Reaper War. There were some mutterings that Wrex had threatened to move the Krogan's colonization efforts into Salarian space if his people were not granted a seat, but when Khalisah Al-Jilani tried to get his side of the tale, she was headbutted into a wall and was hospitalized for a week. After that, the media assumed that subject was off-limits when talking to Wrex.

The first child they had was indeed a girl, and Wrex did carry through on his promise and named her Mordin.

The Turians were the last to regain their homeworld, as two Reapers remained on Palaven's surface. A crucial strike, led by the Normandy, finally broke through one of the Reaper's shields and destroyed it. The second fell victim to a computer virus that lowered its shields for a span of only fifteen seconds, but that was more than enough time for the Turians to test a new weapon on it. To say they were pleased with the results would be a significant understatement.

The Salarians were split after the war, into two factions. One of these factions supported the Dalatross, and maintained that the cure for the Krogan genophage was a mistake.

The other wished to make amends for the mistakes of the past, and chart a different course for the future. It was this faction that won out after the Dalatross mysteriously disappeared one day.

The Asari took a long time to rebuild Thessia, and refused to allow most outsiders onto the planet until renovations were complete. There were rumors that they did allow one outsider onto the world, and that the Shadow Broker brought them plenty of materials to help with the rebuilding.

Ten years after the War, they finally opened the planet to intergalactic trade and commerce again, and the renovations they had done made Thessia a very popular tourist destination for years afterward.

The Humans never did settle on an official "new" home world, but instead continued to spread out around the galaxy. They lost much of their power with the destruction of their planet, and took a long time to regain their former strength.

The Quarians and the Geth spread out from Rannoch in the ensuing years after the Reaper War, and their combined technological prowess made them easily one of the richest races in the galaxy in a very short while. While they no longer lived in their ships, they were still the best engineers in the galaxy, and if you really wanted quality workmanship, you went to a quarian-owned shipyard.

The crew of the Normandy went their various ways after the War.

Garrus Vakarian was offered the position of Primarch, after Victus accepted the job as the new Turian councilor, but he turned them down, saying he was done with politics for the time being. His current location is unknown.

Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, as she took to calling herself, turned from designing ships to designing architecture. She is currently in business on Rannoch and is one of the wealthiest realtors, known especially for her ability with beachfront houses, even some that are designed in the waters of Rannoch themselves.

Liara T'Soni continued her work as the Shadow Broker for twenty years, before turning it over to Feron. She set out into the galaxy, determined to explore new worlds and find new information on the races that had come before them.

Jack become the leader of a new school designed to train human biotics. While some of the visitors are shocked at her methods, and the language that every student on school grounds seems to enjoy, none can argue with her results.

Kasumi Goto vanished after the War, though the black market saw an increase in items for sale, notably a claim that said the original head of the statue of liberty was for sale. Which is, of course, ridiculous.

Samara was last seen on Thessia, though there is speculation that she has left that planet in search of a monastery.

Zaeed Massani formed another merc group, calling themselves the Blue Squid, and based it off of Omega, much to Aria T'Loak's intense displeasure.

Jacob Taylor joined up with C-Sec after a new Citadel was constructed by the combined efforts of the races. The ongoing joke was that at least they didn't have to worry about this model moving.

Joker continued flying for the rest of his days, even consenting to teach at the Alliance Flight School for a few years, although he gained a reputation as the most "hard-ass teacher you will ever have" according to a prominent graduate. EDI stayed with him, even then, although many of the students complained about her motherly tendencies. (Joker would agree with them, if he wasn't afraid of being overheard.)

Grunt became legendary among the Krogan and he is credited as having tracked down and destroyed the final Reaper within the galaxy. To hear him tell it, he did this by headbutting it into submission.

James Vega eventually became a Spectre, after having successfully completed his N7 training. His way of solving sensitive diplomatic issues made Councilor Velarn publicly wish for Shepard to come back.

Miranda Lawson stumbled into her sister's home ten years after the end of the War, exhausted, wounded, and bruised, but with a smile on her face. When Orianna pressed her as to its cause, she simply replied: "The son of a bitch is finally dead." She became a prominent agent in the special arms forces of the Systems Alliance, known especially for her dedication in removing Cerberus operations.

Commander Katelyn Shepard was offered a promotion to Captain immediately upon the end of the war, but turned the promotion down. A year after the end of the War, she resigned from the Military. Her current whereabouts are also unknown, though there are several rumors that she has been spotted in the company of a certain Turian, roaming the galaxy.


	15. Reminiscence

_~Author's Note~ And so, our story comes to an end._

_Thanks to everyone who took the time to review, I appreciate that more than you can know._

_I'm glad you enjoyed the ride._

* * *

><p><em>~Nine years after the Reaper War~<em>

"No, headbutting the other kid is not acceptable, I don't care what he called you... Eve Vakarian. You listen to me, now... No, it doesn't matter what your mother said you could do, besides I highly doubt she said it was okay for you to headbutt anyone who disagreed with you. Shall we go inside and ask her?... That's what I thought. Now go wash up for dinner, alright?"

Garrus Vakarian sat back in his chair with a contented sigh that lasted for all of three seconds, since his chair promptly collapsed under him and deposited him on the ground.

"Mordin! What have I told you about fiddling with- gah." He managed to extricate himself from the contraption and stood back, gazing at it. He threw his hands up in the air and then went and sat on the railing, gazing out over the water.

"Rannoch sure is nice this time of year," Katelyn said, as she came up behind him. She raised an eyebrow at the ruined mess of the porch furniture. "Having trouble with the chairs again, dear?"

"I'd have no trouble at all if it weren't for your son taking the bolts out."

"Oh, now he's my son, is he? I see." She grinned. "If you ask me though, it's because you're getting a little... hmm..."- she wrapped her arms around his waist- "soft around the edges."

He spun around in her arms, a dangerous glint in his eyes. "Soft? Oh-ho, you're gonna regret that one, Shepard."

She waved the spoon in his face. "It's Vakarian now, or have you forgotten that so quickly?"

He grinned in response. "It's Shepard when you're in trouble."

She smiled, looking out over Rannoch, but it didn't reach her eyes. Her voice was soft. "It was fifteen years ago today, Garrus."

He instantly knew what his mate was talking about. Reaching out a hand, he gently brushed her cheek with his talons, and brought her eyes back to his. "You did the right thing, Katelyn. What they offered... that was not an option. There had to be a better way than that. And there was."

Her eyes were haunted, uncertain. "The sacrifice of that many people-"

"To save everyone. I told you before, if it had been Palaven they attacked, I would have made the same call."

She was quiet for a moment, staring out over the waters. "Wrex called yesterday. He said he had another youngling... if we were interested, that is."

He noticed she didn't meet his eyes. "What did you say?"

"That I wasn't going to make a decision like that without asking you first."

He smiled. "I think the Vakarian household can make room for another, what do you think?"

She glanced at him, then broke into a wide grin. This time, it did reach her eyes. "I think; I love you, Garrus Vakarian."

"You only think? You have doubts? I shall have to see what I can do to convince you."

She perched on the railing, her eyes lifted, her mouth smug. "I think that might take some serious work, Mr. Vakarian."

"Well, exactly what kind of work did you have in mind, Mrs. Vakarian?"

Tali's voice interrupted them. "Keelah! Would you two get in here already? We're all waiting."

Garrus' expression turned worried. "Tali was in there helping you with dinner? You two didn't try another one of your "experiments" did you?"

She hopped down next to him. "Now, now Garrus, it wasn't your turn to cook, so you can eat what we made and you will like it, sir."

"You didn't answer my question."

"We may have, ah, fiddled with a recipe or two-"

He shook his head, laughing. "You just can't resist, can you? Oh well, I suppose it can hardly be worse than the last time."

He put his arm around her, and the two of them went into the house together. And to Garrus' great delight, it wasn't worse than last time.

* * *

><p>After the meal, while Garrus and Kal'Reegar were cleaning up the mess, Katelyn and Tali sat down in the common room. She never would get over exactly how a quarian looked with their suits off. The exotic beauty, the simple allure of seeing something that had been hidden for so long- well, suffice it to say she could see why Rannoch was such a popular tourist spot for young people of essentially every race.<p>

Tali looked at her, curious. "What are you thinking about?"

Since she obviously couldn't tell her what she was really thinking, she just shook her head. "Nothing important. Is Kal living here with you?"

Tali blushed hard, and looked down at her feet.

"Well, that's all the answer I needed for that. Did you finally go and ask him, like I said?"

The quarian nodded. Then, tentatively- "Well, I may have done a bit more than just ask." She grinned shyly, meeting Shepard's gaze again.

Katelyn matched her grin. "Men. They simply cannot take a hint. I thought I was going to have to drag Garrus into my cabin." The two women were still laughing when Garrus and Kal'Reegar entered the room.

Garrus smiled and said, "Look, Kal, they're already planning the next experiment to try on us."

The male quarian rolled his eyes. "Anything Tali does is an experiment. Never does the same thing twice, that would be too boring." But he was smiling when he said it, and it was obvious he was just teasing.

Tali started, smacking herself in the forehead. "Oh, I completely forgot. Liara sent me a message, apparently she knows the two of you are here, so she told me to relay the information."

Katelyn smiled and shrugged. "She isn't the Shadow Broker for no reason."

Tali continued, "The repairs to Thessia are nearing completion, they think they'll be ready in eight to ten months, and the Asari government has asked that you be the first official off-worlder allowed back on, Shep- I mean, Katelyn."

Katelyn turned to Garrus. "What do you think? Up for a trip to Thessia?"

He shrugged. "Let's see. We've been to the Elcor homeworld, we've been down to Kahje, Palaven, and now Rannoch. Thessia seems like the next logical destination. Unless you want to visit the Salarians first."

She shook her head. "Not until they've worked out their problems. You know, there's still a significant faction that's mad at me for letting Mordin cure the genophage. Heck, they're about ready to descend into civil war, last I heard. I don't want to drag the kids into that mess. Someone might try to use them against me."

Garrus nodded and the four of them were silent for a moment. Then Tali spoke up again. "I want you two to be the first to know. Well, besides Kal." The male quarian smiled and squeezed Tali's shoulder in response. She continued. "I've decided that I don't want to live on ships anymore, or design them. I told you a few years back that's probably what I would do in peace-time, but there's a huge need among my people for residences, and I'm pretty sure I'd be good at that."

Shepard smiled and nodded. "I bet you would, Tali."

The quarian hesitated then, shakily, "I was thinking... of naming the business Williams Residences. Is that... is that okay?"

Shepard had to swallow, hard, before replying. "I think she would be honored, Tali."

Tali nodded, and blinked a few times, but a few tears made their way down her cheeks despite her effort to stop them.

The reminder of the heavy price they had paid to defeat the Reapers once more settled over Katelyn and again, she questioned her decision.

Garrus saw it, of course, and opened his mouth intending to say something to change the subject. He noticed movement at the corner of the room and saw a person who could show Katelyn that yes, it was worth it, far more than anything he could say. So he merely nodded over his mate's shoulder and said, "Looks like someone isn't as asleep as we thought."

She followed his gaze and saw her daughter, Eve. The little krogan looked adorable, wrapped partially in her sheets, which she had apparently dragged down the stairs with her, but her eyes were red and she had obviously been crying.

"What's the matter, Evey? Bad dream?"

When she nodded, Katelyn stood up. "I'll take care of this, you guys."

She picked up her daughter and took the stairs two at a time, knowing Eve liked that. By the time they got to the bedroom, Eve was smiling. "There, that's better, isn't it?"

She nodded wordlessly, already crawling back underneath her covers. She grabbed her favorite toy, a stuffed Hanar, and held it tightly enough that if the thing had been alive, Katelyn was sure it would be crying out for release. "This one humbly requests that you- ack- loosen your hold on this one's breathing apparatus." She smiled, thinking about it, and looking at her daughter.

She glanced over across the room, to see Mordin in bed, but quite obviously not asleep, although he was trying his best to convince Katelyn he was. A few tools had fallen beside the bed.

"Mordin. You can work on that contraption in the morning. Go to sleep now, sweetheart."

The little turian grumbled something under his breath that Shepard didn't quite catch.

She moved over to stand beside his bed. "What's that?"

"Need to finish cali... calibur... caliburitions."

She had to stifle the laughter that nearly exploded out of her at that.

"You can finish your calibrations tomorrow. Go to sleep. We're still here for another couple weeks, you've got plenty of time. Ask your father what happens when you try to calibrate on no sleep."

She bent down and kissed him on the head, then returned to Eve and did the same. She turned to leave, but her hand was grabbed by Eve's.

"What is it, sweetie?"

The little krogan looked up at her with big round eyes. "You're not going to leave, are you?"

"Just to let you get some sleep-"

"No, please! Don't leave. M'scared."

She sighed, and sat down next to the bed. "You don't need to be scared Eve. I'm never going to leave you, alright?" She yawned, her head nodding. "Never gonna leave..."

Garrus found her like that a half-hour later. He smiled, and picked her up, carrying her to their bed.

She woke up on the way, but was content to let him carry her. He noticed that she was awake, and whispered to her, "Every time you question what happened, and wonder whether you made the right decision, I want you to look at Mordin and Eve, and think of all the other parents that also have their kids because the Reapers were defeated. That's an order, now. You're one for one so far, don't disobey this one and ruin your perfect score."

She smiled. "Yes, sir."

He gently laid her down on the bed, and then he climbed in next to her.

Just before he fell asleep, she poked him in the side. "Garrus?"

"Yes?"

"He's definitely your son."

* * *

><p><strong>Epilogue<strong>

* * *

><p><em>~Seven hundred years after the Reaper War~<em>

Liara T'Soni took a deep breath as she finished her tale. "Wow, I'm really getting on in years. That's starting to take it out of me now. It was far easier when I told your mother all of that. And I'm sure people are gonna ask me to tell it at least once more today."

The three small asari younglings clustered around her feet were staring at her with wide, earnest eyes. The middle one spoke up, her eyes shining. "Wow! Shepard was a great hero! She's better than any of those old Asari we were learning about in school yesterday."

Liara laughed, her eyes twinkling with distant memories. "I think Shepard was a once-in-forever kind of person. The galaxy needed a hero like that, or it would not have survived. After all, not only did she defeat the Reapers, it was also Shepard who set all the races on solving the dark energy problem, and who convinced the council to outlaw the use of the relays to buy us more time. Only someone with her reputation could have pulled that off.

"And now, it is solved. Mordin Vakarian's team discovered a way to shunt the dark energy into darkspace five centuries ago today, thus the celebrations going on." She gestured around at the multitude of people from every race who were scattered around the park. Her voice turned thoughtful. "I can't believe it's been five hundred years. It seems like yesterday that Mordin came running into my quarters at 3 in the morning, shouting and yelling so much I had to get him to calm down before I could even understand what he was trying to say. I guess it was fitting that it was his team who solved it, given who his parents were. Although, for just that one moment, he reminded me more of a certain salarian I knew."

The three were silent for a moment, then the smallest spoke. "Grandmum, why was Shepard such a great hero?"

Liara sat back for a moment, lost in thought. When she spoke, they had to lean forward to hear. "I think it was because, despite everything, she believed in us. She was told by the Reapers that every single galactic civilization that had come before had failed to solve the problem, but she believed we could. Rather than bow to the Reapers' demands, and allow humanity to become one of them, she refused to follow the path they had laid out for her. She never gave up, and refused to give in to their demands, but above all else, she honestly did believe that the races, working together, could accomplish what the Reapers and their twisted versions of us could never do.

"She believed that we could all chart our own course, that we were not bound to fail as those before us had done, and that to succeed or fall on our own was a far nobler goal than anything the Reapers could offer us.

"I believe that was what made her so great: her refusal to accept that there was not a better way."

Again, there was silence for a moment.

The eldest of the three broke it this time. "Where do you think she is now, Grandmum?"

Liara smiled, and raised her eyes toward the stars. "I imagine she's at a bar, sharing a glass with a certain Turian. Somewhere up there." She smiled wider. "I do hope that they are saving a seat for an old friend."

_~Fin~_


End file.
